Computational field programmable architecture

Claim 1

A field programmable architecture for compute-intensive applications, comprising: a section level interconnect channel; a first logic cluster for implementing control logic, comprising a plurality of logic blocks interconnected by a local interconnect channel that is in communication with said section level interconnect channel; and a second logic cluster for implementing data path operations, comprising a plurality of programable logic blocks interconnected by a cluster level interconnect channel that is in communication with said section level interconnect channel, said programable logic blocks each configured to perform operations on two N-bit operands and comprising: (a) a stack of N bit-slice logic elements each having two data bit inputs, a data bit output a multiply bit input, a carry-in bit input a carry-out bit output a programable operation select circuit for processing inputs received by said two data bit inputs and said multiply bit input, and a 1-bit full adder circuit for generating a sum-bit output and said carry-bit output in response to information received from said operation select circuit and said carry-in bit input the carry-in bit input of each successive bit slice logic element being connected to the carry-out bit output of the preceding bit-slice logic element; and (b) control means for programming the operation select circuits of each of said bit slice logic elements in order to selectively configure said programmable logic block to implement one of a ripple carry adder subtracter and partial multiplier, said programable logic blocks of said second logic cluster having a different configuration than the logic blocks of said first logic cluster such that said programable logic blocks provide a more area-efficient realization of adders, subtracters and partial multipliers than the logic blocks of said first logic cluster.