模拟型演化硬件中可重构器件的比较研究

Comparative Study on Reconfigurable Devices for Analog Evolvable Hardware

演化硬件的研究者受困于满足可演化要求的灵活可重构硬件平台的匮乏。一方面,虽然现有商用可重构平台多数具有动态可局部重构能力,但是其设计目的不是用来研究演化硬件的。另外一方面,用户定制的面向演化硬件研究的芯片没有商用化,而且也不太可能在最近走向商用市场。本文研究了两类用来进行模拟演化硬件研究的可重构器件:商用的现场可编程模拟阵列和用户定制的现场可编程三极管阵列。通过比较研究,作者认为在FPTA类定制用于演化的可重构平台商用化之前,在FPAA平台上开展EHW的研究是有意义的,因为FPAA已经具有充分灵活的重构接口和充足的可重配置资源。

The lack of flexible reconfigurable devices essential to the study of hardware evolution process, namely evolvable hardware （EHW）, has led the researchers into a dilemma. On one hand, the original purpose of commercial reconfigurable devices is not for evolvable hardware dedicatedly, though, most of which do have the ability of dynamically reconfiguration which is necessary for evolution. On the other hand the custom designed EHW-oriented chips are not commercial available, not either seem to be available in the near future. Two categories of reconfigurable analog devices, commercial field programmable analog array （FPAA） devices and custom designed field programmable transistor array （FPTA） devices are studied referring to their suitability for designing evolvable hardware. The authors argue that until the FPTA begin commercial available, it＇s significant to go through FPAA EHW research since these devices already have flexible reconfiguration interface and enough on-chip reprogrammable resources.