Creation of hardware objects in a reconfigurable computer

Abstract

We define reconfigurable computing systems as those machines that use the reconfigurable aspects of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) to implement an algorithm. Researchers throughout the world have shown that computationally intensive software algorithms can be transposed directly into hardware design for extreme performance gain [1,2,3]. Hardware objects are algorithms implemented as dynamically downloadable hardware designs. Hardware objects execute on reconfigurable computing systems based on SRAM-style Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA). A Hardware Object can be created via schematic and VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL) or Verilog hardware description language. To use a hardware design in a software program, it must be converted into a Hardware Object. The Hardware Object can be used over and over or in combination with other Hardware Objects. This H.O.T. (Hardware Object Technology)™ method of programming reconfigurable computers is the subject of this paper [4].