Adaptive hardware becomes a reality using electrically reconfigurable arrays (ERAs)

Reconfigurable systems-which modify their operation to adapt to prevailing conditions-promise new and exciting design concepts for the 1990s. Adaption, to date, has primarily been the domain of software, but new hardware techniques of logic design using RAM based silicon open up significant benefits. The author discusses how the Electrically Reconfigurable Arrays (ERAs) can be used in adaptive hardware systems. The generic name of SRAM based products such as the ERA is Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). Key features to look for in FPGAs for adaptive hardware applications are speed and flexibility of reconfiguration