Here’s how Warp processing works: When a program first runs on a
microprocessor chip (such as a Pentium), the chip monitors the
program to detect its most frequently-executed parts. The
microprocessor then automatically tries to move those parts to a
special kind of chip called a field-programmable gate array, or
FPGA. “An FPGA can execute some (but not all) programs much
faster than a microprocessor – 10 times, 100 times, even 1,000
times faster,” explains Vahid. “If the microprocessor finds that
the FPGA is faster for the program part, it automatically moves
that part to the FPGA, causing the program execution to ‘warp.’”
By performing optimizations at runtime, Warp processors also
eliminate tool flow restrictions, as well as the extra designer
effort associated with traditional compile-time optimizations.
FPGAs can benefit a wide range of applications, including video
and audio processing; encryption and decryption; encoding;
compression and decompression; bioinformatics – anything that is
compute-intensiv