Dr Dehon believes that reconfigurable technology will eventually find its way into the computing mainstream.
All that would need to be changed is the set-up of the reconfigurable logic.
He says few of his friends understand his day job in reconfigurable computing, and don't care to chat about it.
At the moment, such reconfigurable chips are used mainly as a way of conjuring up specialist hardware in a hurry.
E5, and it combines a microprocessor with 3, 200 reconfigurable logic cells, a chunk of memory, and a number of other components.
He saw reconfigurable logic as a way of speeding up computers by enabling them to reprogram themselves to handle different jobs.
The question, he reckons, is not whether future microprocessors will include reconfigurable logic, but how much of their surface area they will dedicate to it.
Garmin K2 features a 10-inch glove-friendly multi-touch screen at the center of the dash and a digital and reconfigurable 12- inch instrument panel behind the steering wheel.
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While able to speed up the work of the processor, Estrin-style, the reconfigurable logic is primarily intended to do the work that would normally be done by external chips.
The promise of reconfigurable logic is that it should allow the logic and memory resources in a chip to be used more efficiently, especially in applications that need massive computing power.
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Researchers at ETH Zurich are working to change that scenario, as they're currently developing a "self-reconfigurable" device that packs a glue gun for creating the tools it needs on the fly.
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Tuning the design of the chip to match this specific application, but making it reconfigurable, means that phones based around the chip will be able to adapt to different network standards.
Another potentially useful innovation is the so-called reconfigurable display.
It's a kit that allows you to build an endlessly reconfigurable keyboard, so that the keys you need to blast your way through a PC game are exactly where you want them.
Inside the Spark EV, critical vehicle functions are clearly and intuitively displayed on one of the vehicle's two reconfigurable, high-resolution, seven-inch color LCD screens, including a confidence gauge that shows the expected driving range based on driving habits and other conditions.
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