Very high performance computing for military avionics applications using FPGAs

This article discusses the need for very high performance computing in military avionics, with Precision Guided Munition (PGM) applications used as an example of this need. It presents a model suggesting continued rapid improvements in FPGA processing capability, and it analyses the utility of FPGAs as processing engines in terms of processing capability, cost, power consumption and size. It presents several examples of the use of FPGAs as processing engines over the last decade which validate the model, and it also uses these examples to describe various FPGA based processing engine implementation techniques.