Editing Reconfigurable computing (section)

==History==

The concept of reconfigurable computing has existed since the 1960s, when [[Gerald Estrin]]'s paper proposed the concept of a computer made of a standard processor and an array of "reconfigurable" hardware.<ref name="Estrin2002">{{cite journal | last1 = Estrin | first1 = G | year = 2002 | title = Reconfigurable computer origins: the UCLA fixed-plus-variable (F+V) structure computer | journal = IEEE Ann. Hist. Comput. | volume = 24 | issue = 4| pages = 3–9 | doi = 10.1109/MAHC.2002.1114865 | s2cid = 7923912 }}</ref><ref>
Estrin, G., "Organization of Computer Systems—The Fixed Plus Variable Structure Computer",
''Proc. Western Joint Computer Conf.'', Western Joint Computer Conference, New York, 1960, pp. 33–40.</ref> The main processor would control the behavior of the reconfigurable hardware. The latter would then be tailored to perform a specific task, such as [[image processing]] or [[pattern matching]], as quickly as a dedicated piece of hardware. Once the task was done, the hardware could be adjusted to do some other task. This resulted in a hybrid computer structure combining the flexibility of software with the speed of hardware.

In the 1980s and 1990s there was a renaissance in this area of research with many proposed reconfigurable architectures developed in industry and academia,<ref name="Bobda2007">C. Bobda: Introduction to Reconfigurable Computing: Architectures; Springer, 2007</ref> such as: Copacobana, Matrix, GARP,<ref>Hauser, John R. and Wawrzynek, John,
"Garp: A MIPS Processor with a Reconfigurable Coprocessor",
''Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machines''
(FCCM '97, April 16–18, 1997), pp. 24–33.
</ref> Elixent, NGEN,<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=McCaskill|first1=John S.|last2=Chorongiewski|first2=Harald|last3=Mekelburg|first3=Karsten|last4=Tangen|first4=Uwe|last5=Gemm|first5=Udo|date=1994-09-01|title=NGEN — Configurable computer hardware to simulate long-time self-organization of biopolymers|journal=Berichte der Bunsengesellschaft für Physikalische Chemie|language=en|volume=98|issue=9|page=1114|doi=10.1002/bbpc.19940980906|issn=0005-9021}}</ref> Polyp,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Evolvable systems : from biology to hardware : second International Conference, ICES 98, Lausanne, Switzerland, September 23-25, 1998: proceedings|date=1998|publisher=Springer|others=Sipper, Moshe., Mange, Daniel, 1940-, Pérez-Uribe, Andrés., International Conference on Evolvable Systems (2nd : 1998 : Lausanne, Switzerland)|isbn=978-3-540-64954-0|location=Berlin|oclc=39655211}}</ref> MereGen,<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Coupling of biological and electronic systems: proceedings of the 2nd Caesarium, Bonn, November 1-3, 2000|date=2002|publisher=Springer|others=Hoffmann, K.-H. (Karl-Heinz)|isbn=978-3-540-43699-7|location=Berlin|oclc=49750250}}</ref> PACT XPP, Silicon Hive, Montium, Pleiades, Morphosys, and PiCoGA.<ref>Campi, F.; Toma, M.; Lodi, A.; Cappelli, A.; Canegallo, R.; Guerrieri, R., "A VLIW processor with reconfigurable instruction set for embedded applications", Solid-State Circuits Conference, 2003. Digest of Technical Papers. ISSCC. 2003 IEEE International, vol., no., pp. 250–491 vol. 1, 2003</ref> Such designs were feasible due to the constant progress of silicon technology that let complex designs be implemented on one chip. Some of these massively parallel reconfigurable computers were built primarily for special subdomains such as molecular evolution, neural or image processing. The world's first commercial reconfigurable computer, the Algotronix  CHS2X4, was completed in 1991. It was not a commercial success, but was promising enough that [[Xilinx]] (the inventor of the [[FPGA|Field-Programmable Gate Array]], FPGA) bought the technology and hired the Algotronix staff.<ref>[http://www.algotronix.com/people/tom/album.html Algotronix History]</ref> Later machines enabled first demonstrations of scientific principles, such as the spontaneous spatial self-organisation of genetic coding with MereGen.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Füchslin|first1=Rudolf M.|last2=McCaskill|first2=John S.|date=2001-07-31|title=Evolutionary self-organization of cell-free genetic coding|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|language=en|volume=98|issue=16|pages=9185–9190|doi=10.1073/pnas.151253198|issn=0027-8424|pmc=55395|pmid=11470896|bibcode=2001PNAS...98.9185F|doi-access=free}}</ref>