20 Aug
1999
20 Aug
'99
6:46 a.m.
At 11:04 AM 8/20/99 -0600, Richard Erlacher wrote:
I don't think we'll have to wait long for a situation to arise, in which one
links to a site on the web, is fed a download of configuration data which
defines how the system on which one's running is to be defined, then reads
the code which will be executed on the specifically configured "hardware"
environment. Instead of the hardware defining how the software must be
configured, the software will define the way in which the hardware addresses
its requirements.
It's already here. The Transmeta CPU could work that way.
Field-programmable gate arrays (Xilinx chips) have existed for
many years, so who knows how they're being used.
For example, the circa 1992 Video Toaster for the Amiga relied
heavily on these chips to perform real-time video manipulations.
Load a new transition, reprogram the array.
- John