Reconfigurable computing is breaking down the barrier between hardware and software design technologies. The segregation between the two has become more and more fuzzy because reconfigurable computing has now made it possible for hardware to be programmed and software to be synthesized. Reconfigurable computing can also be viewed as a trade-off between general-purpose computing and application specific design. Given the architecture and design flexibility, reconfigurable computing has catalyzed the progress in hardware-software codesign technology and a vast number of application areas such as scientific computing, biological computing, artificial intelligence, signal processing, security computing, and control-oriented design, to name a few. In this article, we briefly introduce why and what is reconfigurable computing in the introduction section. Then, the resulting enhancements of hardware-software codesign methods and the techniques, tools, platforms, design and verification methodologies of reconfigurable computing will be introduced in the background section. Furthermore, we will introduce and compare some reconfigurable computing architectures. Finally, the future trends and conclusions will also be given. This article is aimed at widespread audiences, including both a person not particularly well grounded in computer architecture and a technical person.
Computer Architecture and Design