A survey of coarse-grained reconfigurable architecture and design: Taxonomy, challenges, and applications

Abstract

As general-purpose processors have hit the power wall and chip fabrication cost escalates alarmingly, coarse-grained reconfigurable architectures (CGRAs) are attracting increasing interest from both academia and industry, because they offer the performance and energy efficiency of hardware with the flexibility of software. However, CGRAs are not yet mature in terms of programmability, productivity, and adaptability. This article reviews the architecture and design of CGRAs thoroughly for the purpose of exploiting their full potential. First, a novel multidimensional taxonomy is proposed. Second, major challenges and the corresponding state-of-the-art techniques are surveyed and analyzed. Finally, the future development is discussed.