Recursive versus Iterative Algorithms for Solving Combinatorial Search Problems in Hardware

The paper analyses and compares alternative iterative and recursive implementations of combinatorial search algorithms in hardware (in field-programmable gate arrays - FPGA, in particular). The results of experiments and comparisons for three widely used problems from this scope are presented, namely for the Boolean satisfiability, binary matrix covering, and graph coloring. The relevant comparative data have been obtained as a result of synthesis and implementation in FPGAs of the respective circuits from VHDL specifications.