RECONFIGURABLE CELLULAR HARDWARE FOR COMMUNICATIONS - AN EDUCATIONAL PLATFORM DRIVEN BY VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTATION
RECONFIGURABLE CELLULAR HARDWARE FOR COMMUNICATIONS - AN EDUCATIONAL PLATFORM DRIVEN BY VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTATION

Summary/Abstract: Recent research has developed service-oriented solutions for reconfigurable hardware, with a top-down functional approach supported by virtual instrumentation systems like "NI LV" - National Instruments LabVIEW. The broad spectrum of Cloud-based management and deployment of such solutions - including resource-intensive "Cloud compilation" in case of using FPGA - have a great potential for ODL (Open and Distance Learning), as being distributed and easily interfaced with our "target user" that can be a trainee not very professional with HDL (Hardware Description Languages). The paper goes beyond consolidated solutions using NI LV like RIO (Reconfigurable Input-Output), aiming to approach also the processing, not at the level of modern SoC (Systems on Chip), but on cellular - "tissue"/"fabric" structures like Cellular Automata. The authors are presenting a demonstrator based on Xilinx Spartan family of FPGA, with prototypes of elementary automata built to be easily put together in scalable configurations. There are discussed use-cases oriented to pattern encryption, based on an educational platform integrated by the authors.

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