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Quantitative measurements of FPGA utility in special and general purpose processors

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Abstract

We present experimental results on FPGA use in special and general purpose processors, using as case studies a computational accelerator for gene sequence analysis, an integer implementation of the DLX microprocessor and a real-time signal processor for rocket telemetry. All these devices have been successfully prototyped, and are now completely functional. We present detailed analysis of our experience with FPGAs in these machines, describing savings in chip count, power consumption, area, and cost. For all quantitites except cost, measured savings were typically an order of magnitude improvement over discrete IC implementations. References

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Fagin, B.S. Quantitative measurements of FPGA utility in special and general purpose processors. J VLSI Sign Process Syst Sign Image Video Technol 6, 129–137 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01607877

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01607877

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