Perspectives of extending runtime reconfigurable computing to the enterprise application domain

Run time reconfigurable hardware combines some of the flexibility of software with the high performance of hardware. Hybrid computing systems that use reconfigurable hardware can save much energy compared to traditional high performance server systems and also have a long life expectancy due to its adaptability and the use of self-repairing techniques. So far reconfigurable hardware has mainly been used only in scientific and technical applications. In this paper, we discuss the perspectives of reconfigurable computing in the domain of sustainable enterprise applications. We present the requirements for a reconfigurable enterprise computing platform and argue that reconfigurable hardware can help tackling data throughput issues in current business scenarios and that it will play a key role for holistic hybrid systems bridging the worlds of the “Internet of Services” and the “Internet of Things”.