Four ages of FPGAs:
– 1984-1991: Invention
– 1992-1999: Expansion
– 2000-2007: Accumulation
– 2008-2015: Specialization
Age of Invention:
– Tight technology limits: much smaller than application size
– Efficiency is key
– Design automation is secondary to capacity
Age of Expansion:
– metal layer が増えて、wire が一気に増えた
Age of Accumulation:
– Process tech: complexity eliminates “casual” ASIC users
– FPGAs are larger than the typical problem size
– Logic capacity limited by I/O and mem bandwidth
– Power is growing concern
– Design effort takes on a new dimension: complete digital systems on FPGAs require new design skills
Age of Specialization:
– Dual challenges of VLSI: giga-scale & deep submicron
– Logic cells, memory, multiplier and I/O: 増加速度がそれぞれ違う
– I/O per gate は 1/60 にもなっている！ (これは microprocessor でも同じ)
– Application domain に特化させることでコストを最適化: “ASIC FPGA”
XIlinx FSB module: V5 on Xeon FSB at 1066MHz
Configurable Computing に必要なもの
– バイナリ互換性
– 5-minute compiles
– native compilers
– source level debugging