Breakthrough in FPGAs could make custom chips faster, larger

Today we are worshipping the gods of the algorithm, according to one prominent magazine. It’s not a bad comparison. Everything from search results to our machine learning efforts are the basis of a series of equations that purport to solve for something that feels almost ineffable, human. Teaching a computer to see. Helping to figure out how to take our comings and goings and turn it into a schedule. Understanding our thermostat settings and turning that into a schedule.

But if our new gods are algorithms, then the chips that are performing those complicated equations are their shrines, and the more specific the shrine, the better your prayers work. The Greeks knew that. They built shrines to each of their individual gods with statues, symbols and other trappings of faith specific to their deity of choice. When it comes to algorithms computer scientists are less vested in faith but…