Configurable Computing: A Survey of Systems and Software

Due to its potential to greatly accelerate a wide variety of applications, reconfigurable computing has become a subject of a great deal of research. Its key feature is the ability to perform computations in hardware to increase performance, while retaining much of the flexibility of a software solution. In this survey we explore the hardware aspects of reconfigurable computing machines, from single chip architectures to multi-chip systems, including internal structures and external coupling. We also focus on the software that targets these machines, such as compilation tools that map high-level algorithms directly to the reconfigurable substrate. Finally, we consider the issues involved in run-time reconfigurable systems, which re-use the configurable hardware during program execution. Introduction There are two primary methods in traditional computing for the execution of algorithms. The first is to use an Application Specific Integrated Circuit, or ASIC, to perform the ope..