Building Reconfigurable Systems Using Open Source Components

The complexity of reconfigurable systems is in great part the complexity of the hardware-software environment where they are integrated. Many different reconfigurable architectures and respective development tools have been proposed in the literature, but few reconfigurable computing startups have succeeded at creating sustainable business models. The extraordinary infrastructure needed to operate any computer in general, and a reconfigurable computer in particular, takes several years to develop and requires intensive capital investment. This problem is slowly but effectively being addressed in the open source community by making available, free of charge, high quality hardware and software components which innovative companies can use to assemble complex systems. This paper presents both a methodology for creating reconfigurable systems on chip (SoCs), using open source components, and a base SoC created using the proposed methodology. An experimental evaluation of the open source components used and of the system itself is provided.