The Morphware Page

last update June 2001

 

What is Morphware ?

Morphware goes into every application

Hardware versus Configware

Traditional procedural computing systems consist of processor hardware and software running on it. Programming means downloading machine code into the RAM memory of the processor. Machine code is generated by compilers accepting high level programming languages. The RAM is the basis of the extreme flexibility of procedural processors: the secret of success of the software industry is RAM-based.
 

Morphware (Soft "Hardware)

Reconfigurable "hardware" is not really hard like classical hardware. It can be re-configured by structural code (configuration code) to be downloaded into the "hidden" RAM of such Morphware. Such structural code is fundamentally different from (classical) Software.  Programming such reconfigurable platforms needs Configware instead. For terminology see table no. 1, and more details.

Table no. 1: toward a consensus on basic terminology:

platform			program source running on it	machine paradigm
hardware			(not programmable)	(none)
morphware	fine grain	rGA (FPGA)	configware
	coarse grain	rDPU, rDPA
		reconfigurable data stream processor	flowware & configware	anti machine
data stream processor (hardwired)			flowware
instruction stream processor			software	von Neumann machine

Acronyms: r = reconfigurable | FP = field-programmable | GA =  gate array |
DPU = DataPath Unit | DPA = DPU array |

Configware versus Software

Configware versus Software means Procedural Programming versus Structural Programming. Procedural programming of classical processor hardware by Software means Programming in Time. I. e. a procedural program is a schedule. Structural programming by Configware, however, means Programming in Space. That's why Configware versus Software means Computing in Space versus Computing in Time.
 

Morphware Benefit

Computing in space allows massive parallelism, so that Morphware may be by orders of magnitude more powerful than computing on classical processors, i. e. by computing in time. Compared to specialized hardwired ASIC hardware, morphware usage is highly flexible by reconfigurability. This also means a fundamental change of the business model: special ASIC hardware functionality is determined at vendor's site, whereas Morphware functionality can be defined and even upgraded later at the customer's site. This provides shorter time to market, as well as product longevity.
 

Configware Industry Success Story

Currently a Configware Industry is emerging as a counterpart to Software Industry. (Because this new Industry is spinning off EDA industry, some people say "soft IP cores" instead of Configware). The application of both is RAM-based: that of Software and of Configware. Being RAM-based, Configware is heading toward a success story being similar as known from Software Industry.

The term "Morphware"

This term has been coined in the late 90ies by a participant of the Polymorphous Computing Architectures (PCA) program of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

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