Field-programmable integrated circuits-overview and future trends

Summary form only given as follows. Recent advances in device architectures and programmable technology have resulted in a dramatic increase in the integration capacity of field-programmable integrated circuits (FPICs). FPICs with over 10000 usable gates are currently available and it is expected that FPICs with 200000 gates will become feasible before the end of the century. Such high integration FPICs are becoming viable alternatives to many gate array and standard cell implementations. Moreover, the ability to rapidly prototype large systems using FPICs is opening up new and exciting possibilities in product customization, emulation, and configurable hardware acceleration. The author presents an overview of existing FPICs and discusses future directions in device architectures and applications to system level programmability.<
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