Field programmable gate array key to reconfigurable array outperforming supercomputers

In order to solve the problem of mapping the human genome and other similar problems, the Supercomputing Research Center (SRC) developed SPLASH, a reconfigurable linear logic array. The SPLASH system gives a Sun workstation better than supercomputer performance on certain classes of problems. SPLASH´s performance can surpass that of the Cray 2 by a factor of 325. Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) were used to build SPLASH, which is efficient like a specialized board, yet flexible like a supercomputer. The SPLASH system consists of software and hardware which plugs into two slots of a Sun workstation. The types of problems SRC is able to solve with SPLASH, why traditional solutions were not practical, and how FPGA technology allowed SRC to build SPLASH are discussed