Computation Models for Reconfigurable Machines

: Currently, reconfigurable computing solutions are developed by writing High level Description Language (HDL) code and compiling it onto hardware. Though this approach is suitable for static reconfigurable devices, tools using this approach do not analyze the runtime behavior of the application. Hence designing tools which exploit dynamic reconfigurability is not an easy task. This paper presents a new approach to developing dynamically reconfigurable computing solutions. Computing models are developed which bridge the semantic gap between the algorithm and the actual hardware. A General Reconfigurable Computing Model (GRECOM) is used to capture the ability to change both the interconnections and the logic at runtime based on intermediate results. Two specific instances of GRECOM, the Reconfigurable Mesh and the FPGA Model are derived and applications are demonstrated using these models. 1 This work was supported by DARPA under contract DABT63-96-C-0049 monitored by Fort Hauchuca. ..