Special Issue on Reconfigurable Systems: Foundations [Guest editors' introduction]

The articles in this special issues are the first of two special issues that will provide an in-depth treatment of the subject of reconfigurable systems as enabled through advancements in the electrical engineering field, as well as the approaches we use to manage complexity in systems having millions of fixed and programmable elements. It is our view that the frenetic evolution of the field programmable gate array (FPGA) as a preeminent digital platform will not only continue for the foreseeable future, but will serve as an inspiration/template for other functional domains to include analog, radio-frequency, photonic, and even those not strictly electrical in nature to include thermal, fluidic, and mechanical. This issue will serve as an immersion into the subject of reconfigurable systems, both for the purposes of gaining familiarity with essential theoretical elements, the key developments in the field, and the potential future directions.