A 36-context optically reconfigurable gate array

Fast reconfiguration and numerous reconfiguration contexts are two important features of dynamically reconfigurable devices. However, realizing both is difficult in current dynamically reconfigurable devices. Therefore, optically reconfigurable gate arrays (ORGAs) have been under development to solve this problem. Actually, ORGAs can realize a large virtual gate count over current VLSIs by combining a holographic memory storing numerous reconfiguration contexts with an optically reconfigurable gate array VLSI. To date, a 16-configurationcontext ORGA has been developed. This paper presents a more advanced demonstration of a 36-configuration-context ORGA architecture, which is larger than the number of reconfiguration contexts of current dynamically reconfigurable devices. The 36-configuration-context ORGA architecture achieved 52 ns - 1.65 ¿s fast reconfiguration. In addition, this paper presents a discussion of some technical issues for increasing the number of configuration contexts of a multi-context ORGA and future vision, based on results of several experiments.