Strategic Challenges for Application Development Productivity in Reconfigurable Computing

Performance and versatility requirements arising from escalating fabrication costs and design complexities are making reconfigurable computing technologies increasingly advantageous on the roadmap towards many-core technologies. This reformation in device architectures is necessitating a critical reformation in application design methods to bridge the widening semantic gap between design productivity and execution efficiency. This paper explores the strategic challenges in FPGA design methodologies and evaluates potential solutions and their impact on future DoD applications and users. A new research initiative, strategic infrastructure for reconfigurable computing applications (SIRCA), has also been proposed as a potential new DARPA program to address the FPGA productivity problem.