  In this paper, the authors propose the idea of a combined integer and
floating point multiplier(CIFM) for FPGAs. The authors propose the replacement
of existing 18x18 dedicated multipliers in FPGAs with dedicated 24x24
multipliers designed with small 4x4 bit multipliers. It is also proposed that
for every dedicated 24x24 bit multiplier block designed with 4x4 bit
multipliers, four redundant 4x4 multiplier should be provided to enforce the
feature of self repairability (to recover from the faults). In the proposed
CIFM reconfigurability at run time is also provided resulting in low power. The
major source of motivation for providing the dedicated 24x24 bit multiplier
stems from the fact that single precision floating point multiplier requires
24x24 bit integer multiplier for mantissa multiplication. A reconfigurable,
self-repairable 24x24 bit multiplier (implemented with 4x4 bit multiply
modules) will ideally suit this purpose, making FPGAs more suitable for integer
as well floating point operations. A dedicated 4x4 bit multiplier is also
proposed in this paper. Moreover, in the recent years, reversible logic has
emerged as a promising technology having its applications in low power CMOS,
quantum computing, nanotechnology, and optical computing. It is not possible to
realize quantum computing without reversible logic. Thus, this paper also paper
provides the reversible logic implementation of the proposed CIFM. The
reversible CIFM designed and proposed here will form the basis of the
completely reversible FPGAs.
