Configurable systems-on-chip: commercial and academic approaches

Systems-on-chip (SoCs) has become reality now, driven by fast development of CMOS VLSI technologies. Complex system integration on to one single die introduces a set of various challenges and perspectives for industrial and academic institutions. Important issues to be addressed here are cost-effective technologies, efficient and application-tailored hardware/software architectures, and corresponding IP-based EDA methods. Due to exponentially increasing CMOS mask costs, essential aspects for the industry are now adaptivity of SoCs, which can be realized by integrating reconfigurable re-usable hardware parts on different granularities into configurable systems-on-chip (CSoCs).