Software of silicon? the designer's option

Traditionally, the bulk of computer system functionality is implemented in the software medium, as a sequence of instructions for a general-purpose processor. Historically, this has provided the best balance of flexibility, cost, and performance. The new economics of VLSI and continuing advances in VLSI CAD capability open the possibility of application-specific functionality embedded in silicon as a matter of routine. This paper presents several case studies of silicon solutions used in typical software areas, including regular language recognition, Ada program unit replacement, dictionary machines, and string pattern matching. Either software or hardware designers may benefit from a study of such architectures, and Organick's notion of heterosystems designers proficient in both domains is supported.