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From Configurable Circuits to Bio-Inspired Systems

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Intelligent Systems and Interfaces

Part of the book series: International Series in Intelligent Technologies ((ISIT,volume 15))

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Abstract

Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are large, fast integrated circuits — that can be modified, or configured, almost at any point by the end user. Within the domain of configurable computing we distinguish between two modes of configurability: static—where the configurable processor’ s configuration string is loaded once at the outset, after which it does not change during execution of the task at hand, and dynamic— where the processor’ s configuration may change at any moment. This chapter describes six applications in the domain of configurable computing, considering both static and dynamic systems, including: SPYDER (a reconfigurable processor development system), RENCO (a reconfigurable network computer), an FPGA-based backpropagation neural network, Firefly (an evolving machine), BioWatch (a self- repairing watch), and FAST (a neural network with a flexible, adaptable-size topology). Moreover, we argue that the rise of configurable computing requires a fundamental change in the engineering curriculum, toward which end we present the LABOMAT board, developed for use by students in hardware design courses. While static configurability mainly aims at attaining the classical computing goal of improving performance, dynamic configurability might bring about an entirely new breed of hardware devices — ones that are able to adapt within dynamic environments.1

Article Footnote

This chapter is based in part on the paper: E. Sanchez, M. Sipper, J.-O. Haenni, J.-L. Beauchant, A. Staffer, and A. Perez-Uribe, “Static and dynamic system”, IEEE Transaction on Computers, 1999 (to appear). This work was supported in part by Grant 2000–049349..96 from the swiss National Science Foundation and by grant from the werner Steiger Foundation.

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Authors
  1. Moshe Sipper
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  2. Eduardo Sanchez
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  3. Jacques Olivier Haenni
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  4. Jean-Luc Beuchat
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  5. Andre Stauffer
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  6. Andres Perez-Uribe
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of South Florida (USF), USA

    Horia-Nicolai Teodorescu

  2. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Switzerland

    Daniel Mlynek

  3. University of South Florida, USA

    Abraham Kandel

  4. RWTH, USA

    H.-J. Zimmermann

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Sipper, M., Sanchez, E., Haenni, J.O., Beuchat, JL., Stauffer, A., Perez-Uribe, A. (2000). From Configurable Circuits to Bio-Inspired Systems. In: Teodorescu, HN., Mlynek, D., Kandel, A., Zimmermann, HJ. (eds) Intelligent Systems and Interfaces. International Series in Intelligent Technologies, vol 15. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4401-2_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4401-2_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-6980-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-4401-2

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