Analysis of Computational Models and Application Characteristics Suitable for Reconfigurable FPGAs

With the proliferation of mobile and handheld devices, many applications have found their way into these devices. In order to process the applications on mobile systems, effectively and efficiently, optimized hardware-software architectures are needed. Our previous analysis illustrated that FPGA-based reconfigurable systems provide the most viable option to support application on mobile devices. However, computation models and application characteristics also play significant roles in determining whether FPGA-based reconfigurable hardware is indeed a good match for specific applications on a mobile or embedded platform. In this work, we investigate and present computation models and application characteristics that could potentially benefit from this hardware and discuss the how´s and why´s.