Reconfigurable computing presents new challenges to language designers and compiler writers. R. Petersen and B. Hutchings. An Assessment of the Suitability of FPGA-Based Systems for use in Digital Signal Processing . Workshop on Field-Programmable Logic and Applications, Oxford, 1995. The dotted lines show how the digital stage is being expanded into higher frequencies.
Performance is the major advantage of FPGAs over conventional processors.
The major advantage of FPGAs over ASICs is programmability, which of course has a performance penalty. However , creating a new configuration on FPGAs means designing a new hardware architecture. R. J. Petersen, B. L. Hutchings, An Assessment of the Suitability of FPGA-Based Systems for use in Digital Signal Processing , 5th International Workshop on FieldProgrammable Logic and Applications, Oxford, England, Aug. 1995. The basic computation unit is the butterfly. Butterfly is a repetitive structure that has 2 inputs and 2 outputs.