U.S. patents available from 1976 to present.
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FPGA virtual computer for executing a sequence of program instructions by successively reconfiguring a group of FPGA in response to those instructions

Patent 5684980 Issued on November 4, 1997. Estimated Expiration Date: Icon_subject July 23, 2016. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.

Patent References

Re34363

Re34444

Special interconnect for configurable logic array
Patent #: 4642487
Issued on: 02/10/1987
Inventor: Carter

Electronically programmable gate array having programmable interconnect lines
Patent #: 4786904
Issued on: 11/22/1988
Inventor: Graham, III ,   et al.

Semi-conductor integrated circuits/systems
Patent #: 4935734
Issued on: 06/19/1990
Inventor: Austin

Apparatus for emulation of electronic hardware system Patent #: 5109353
Issued on: 04/28/1992
Inventor: Sample, et al.

Inventor

Assignee

Application

No. 685158 filed on 07/23/1996

US Classes:

703/23EMULATION

Examiners

Primary: Ellis, Richard L.

Attorney, Agent or Firm

International Class

G06F 019/00

Abstract

An array of FPGAs change their configurations successively during performance of successive user-defined algorithms. Adjacent FPGAs are connected through external field programmable interconnection devices (FPINs) or cross-bar switches. The array includes a processor-like device capable of performing the computations necessary to reconfigure the FPGAs in the array in accordance with the next algorithm to be performed. Preferably, this processor-like device is itself a "control" array of interconnected FPGAs which have been configured to emulate a selected microprocessor architecture which accepts user-defined primitives corresponding to an algorithm to be performed or a logic architecture to be emulated and reconfigure the FPGAs and the FPINs accordingly.

Other References

  • Dillen, Paul, Adaptive Hardware Becomes a Reality using Electrically Reconfigurable Arrays (ERAs), IEE Colloquim on `User-Configurable Logic--Technology and Applications`, p. 2/1-10, 1 Mar. 1991
  • Beal, Dr. Sam W., "Rapid Design Implementation with Field-Programmagle Gate Arrays," Digest of Papers, COMPCON Spring '89. Thirty-Fourth IEEE Computer Society International Conference: Intellectual Leverage, 1989, pp. 487-490
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  • Wolfe, Andrew and Shen, John P. A Promising Application-Specific Processor Design Approach. Proceedings of the IEEE 21st Annual Workshop on Microprogramming and Microarchitecture, Nov. 30-Dec. 2, 1998, pp. 30-39
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  • Kean, Tom and Gray, John. Configurable Hardware: Two Case Studies of Micro-Grain Computation. Journal of VLSI Signal Processing, vol. 2, 1990, pp. 9-16
  • Hastie, Neil and Cliff, Richard. The Implementation of Hardware Subroutines on Filed Programmable Gate Arrays. Proceedings of the IEEE May 1990 Custom Integrated Circuits Conference, pp. 31.4.1-31.4.4
  • Furtek, F., Stone, G. and Jones, I. Labyrinth: A Homogeneous Computational Medium. Proceedings of the IEEE May 1990 Custom Integrated Circuits Conference, pp. 31.1.1-31.1.4
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  • Hartenstein, R., Hirschbiel, A., Riedmuller, M. Schmidt, K. and Weber, M. A Novel ASIC Design Approach Based on a New Machine Paradigm. IEEE, vol. 26, No. 7, Jul. 17, 199
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