Reconfigurable Systems: Advanced Applications and Technologies [Scanning the Issue]

The articles in this special issue focus on reconfigurable systems. Reconfigurability is about "change," specifically soft-defined change, whereby through the manipulation of bit sequences we can customize the properties of components, and in some cases define systems themselves. One can design systems for reconfigurability (the art of engineering degrees of freedom into embedded systems), so that users expecting this reconfigurability can exploit it. This issue focuses on important reconfigurable platforms [field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs)], development tools, and applications (reconfigurable computing and software radios). As we discussed, reconfigurability can be both dynamic and adaptive, but one should not confuse the two concepts. Reconfigurability refers to specific features that can be changed (to include dynamic and partial reconfigurability), whereas adaptiveness addresses the behavioral constructs that inform how reconfigurable features might best be exploited in live use conditions.