A Four-Context Optically Differential Reconfigurable Gate Array

Reconfiguration applications based on reconfigurable devices present new computational paradigms since, by increasing the reconfiguration frequency of reconfigurable devices, their activity and performance can be improved dramatically. Recently, optically reconfigurable gate arrays (ORGAs) with a holographic memory were developed. They realize rapid reconfigurations and numerous reconfiguration contexts. Furthermore, optically differential reconfigurable gate arrays (ODRGAs) have been developed to accelerate optical reconfigurations of conventional ORGAs. However, fast configuration experiments under multiple contexts exploiting the ODRGA architecture have never been reported. Therefore, this paper presents a four-context ODRGA system and experimental results demonstrating its fast reconfiguration. The advantage of the ODRGA architecture is discussed based on those results.

I. Introduction

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) have been used widely in recent years because of their flexible reconfiguration capabilities [1]–[3]. Moreover, demand for high-speed reconfigurable devices has been increasing. If circuit information can be programmed rapidly from a memory to a gate array, idle circuits can be removed; only necessary circuits need be programmed into the gate array at the time, thereby increasing the gate-array activity. Moreover, such devices offer the possibility of providing a virtual gate count that is much larger than those of currently available VLSIs.