State-of-the-Art Reconfigurable Board for Heterogeneous Computing

73089S03-I Software Radio, needed for national security applications, drives wide bandwidths (40-100 MHz) and therefore requires super-computing I/O and signal processing capabilities. General-purpose processors do not provide enough performance density to effectively address these applications, while Application Specific Integrated Circuits are costly and difficult to update. Therefore, this project will develop a state-of-the-art Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA)-based Reconfigurable Computing board, providing high-performance, high-density computing on a low-cost, multi-purpose board. Phase I will include initial systems studies and feasibility validations for the reconfigurable FPGA computing board, and then system simulations and models of at least one test application for Software Radio. Phase I will result in a complete block diagram, schematics, and camera ready layout for the proposed board, ready for construction in Phase II. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by awardee: In addition to surveillance applications (e.g., related to communications, high-performance computing, and sensor processing), the high-density, low-cost computing platform also should benefit medical and target recognition systems.