Showing papers on "Reconfigurable computing published in 1991"

Borg: a reconfigurable prototyping board using field-programmable gate arrays

Abstract: Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) provide a medium to accelerate the process of prototyping digital designs. For designs with multiple FPGAs that need to be connected together, the bottleneck is now the process of wire-wrapping, bread-boarding, or (worse) the construction of a printed circuit board, which cannot be carried out until all FPGA designs are routed. It is because locking or preassigning I/O blocks often prevent FPGA placement/routers from completing the routing.\\ We exploit the reprogrammability of FPGAs and use them for routing. To experiment with the idea, we constructed a PC-based prototyping board that contains two ``user'''' FPGAs, two routing FPGAs, and an FPGA that serves as glue logic to the PC bus. To facilitate the design process using the new prototyping board, we developed algorithms and tools that automatically configure the routing FPGAs. We describe the options that we have examined during the development of this board, and how we arrive at some design decisions. The toolset, user FPGAs, and the routing FPGAs and the reprogammability of the FPGAs serve to further reduce the time/cost of constructing prototypes using FPGAs.

TRIPTYCH: A New FPGA Architecture

Abstract: Existing FPGA architectures can be classified along two dimensions: reprogrammable vs. one-time programmable and general-purpose vs. domain specific. The most challenging class of FPGA architectures to design is the reprogrammable, general-purpose FPGA, of which Xilinx is the most wellknown example. In this paper we describe Triptych, a new FPGA architecture that addresses two problems of current reprogrammable FPGAs: the large delays incurred in composing large functions and the strict division between routing and logic resources. Our studies indicate that Triptych is more areaefficient than current architectures and has comparable delay characteristics for a large range of circuits that include both data-path elements and control logic.

Adaptive hardware becomes a reality using electrically reconfigurable arrays (ERAs)

Abstract: Reconfigurable systems-which modify their operation to adapt to prevailing conditions-promise new and exciting design concepts for the 1990s. Adaption, to date, has primarily been the domain of software, but new hardware techniques of logic design using RAM based silicon open up significant benefits. The author discusses how the Electrically Reconfigurable Arrays (ERAs) can be used in adaptive hardware systems. The generic name of SRAM based products such as the ERA is Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). Key features to look for in FPGAs for adaptive hardware applications are speed and flexibility of reconfiguration.