Reconfigurable computing: architectures and design methods

TLDR

Reconfigurable computing is becoming increasingly attractive for many applications. This survey covers two aspects of reconfigurable computing: architectures and design methods. The survey reviews recent advances in reconfigurable architectures, including the Altera Stratix II and Xilinx Virtex‑4 FPGA devices, and identifies major trends in general‑purpose and special‑purpose design methods. Reconfigurable computing designs can achieve up to 500‑fold speedup and 70 % energy savings over microprocessor implementations for specific applications.

Abstract

Reconfigurable computing is becoming increasingly attractive for many applications. This survey covers two aspects of reconfigurable computing: architectures and design methods. The paper includes recent advances in reconfigurable architectures, such as the Alters Stratix II and Xilinx Virtex 4 FPGA devices. The authors identify major trends in general-purpose and special-purpose design methods. It is shown that reconfigurable computing designs are capable of achieving up to 500 times speedup and 70% energy savings over microprocessor implementations for specific applications.