Editing Reconfigurable computing (section)

{{Short description|Computer architecture that can be reprogrammed}}
{{Use American English|date = April 2019}}
{{Technical|date=May 2009}}

'''Reconfigurable computing''' is a [[computer architecture]] combining some of the flexibility of software with the high performance of hardware by processing with flexible hardware platforms like [[FPGA|field-programmable gate array]]s (FPGAs). The principal difference when compared to using ordinary [[microprocessor]]s is the ability to add custom computational blocks using FPGAs. On the other hand, the main difference from custom hardware, i.e. [[application-specific integrated circuit]]s (ASICs) is the possibility to adapt the hardware during runtime by "loading" a new circuit on the reconfigurable fabric, thus providing new computational blocks without the need to [[Semiconductor device fabrication|manufacture]] and add new [[Integrated circuit|chips]] to the existing system.