Reconfigurable architectures: The shift from general systems to domain specific solutions

Reconfigurable computing is an expanding field that, during the last decades, has evolved from a relatively closed community, where hard skilled developers deployed high performance systems, based on their knowledge of the underlying physical system, to an attractive solution to both industry and academia. With this chapter, we explore the different lines of development in the field, namely the need of new tools to shorten the development time, the creation of heterogeneous platforms which couple hardware accelerators with general purpose processors, and the demand to move from general to specific solutions. Starting with the identification of the main limitations that have led to improvements in the field, we explore the emergence of a wide range of Computer Aided Design tools that allow the use of high level languages and guide the user in the whole process of system deployment. This opening to a wider public and their high performance with relatively low power consumption facilitate the spreading in data-centers, where, apart from the undeniable benefits, we have explored critical issues. We conclude with the latest trends in the field such as the use of hardware as a service and the shifting to Domain Specific Architectures based on reconfigurable fabrics.