Adaptive systems-on-chip: architectures, technologies and applications

The fast technological development in Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) has enabled chip-designers to integrate complete electronic systems, formerly built of several separate chips, onto one single piece of silicon. These Systems-on-Chip (SoCs) introduce a set of various challenges for their interdisciplinary microelectronic implementation, from system theory (application) level over efficient CAD methods to suitable technologies. Important aspects for the industry are the flexibility and adaptivity of SoCs, which can be realized by integrating reconfigurable hardware parts on different granularities into Configurable Systems-on-Chip (CSoCs). The paper describes the major challenges and first approaches in architecture, design and application of application-specific adaptive SoCs, e.g. in digital baseband processing for future mobile radio devices.