I think that GPUs are already basically field programmable node arrays. Maybe for certain instances FPGAs would be better but the neural network would have to be designed at the logic gate level so it'd be significantly more costly in engineering time than a algorithm running on the GPU or CPU. FPGAs are for relatively simple logic running at incredibly high throughput with very low latencies. It's extremely common to move more complicated logic to a "soft" CPU on the FPGA that runs C code compiled to ARM/SPARC/POWER etc. and controls the low level hardware.
GPUs and FPGAs are very far from each other architecturally and are good at very different things. They will certainly be separate products for the next 3 decades as they were for the last 3 decades.
At the desktop/server level, I agree, which is why I don't get the whole Intel/Altera synergy thing.
But in more specific embedded cases -- meaning the vast majority of FPGA applications -- they are nothing alike. If I need to run a multichannel digital downconverter on a power budget of 1 watt, no GPU available in the foreseeable future is going to handle that role as well as an FPGA will.
Perhaps someday a hypothetical I/O-optimized GPU will be able to do the jobs that are currently done on FPGAs and ASICs, but definitely not now.
Let's recall a previous acquisition, one that I totally didn't understand. An analyst had a really good quip about it:
JPMorgan analyst Christopher Danely upgraded Intel to overweight following the company's earnings, although he still struggles to reconcile Intel's recent acquisition spree.
"Intel might as well have bought Whole Foods," he said of the McAfee deal.[1]
Compared to McAfee, acquiring Altera was brilliant.
As a public company Intel is always facing scrutiny from Wall Street. They need to constantly increase both revenue and earnings. What better way than via a strategic acquisition? Instant growth.
And Altera was a logical target. Altera sells high-margin silicon. Intel sells high-margin silicon. Intel was even fabbing some of Altera's parts, so they were quite familiar with the company. And maybe some smart people could eventually think of some synergy. E.g. once upon a time Intel made the IXP1200, a "network processor". What if, instead of designing custom silicon for something like that, perhaps a CPU + FPGA on a single die would be sufficient?
Makes much more sense than Intel acquiring McAfee.
I think they'll continue to be seperate products far into the future because they're fundamentally different approaches. Aside from anything else, FPGAs are optimized for latency whereas GPUs are optimized for overall throughput.
