A shapeshifting evolvable hardware mechanism based on reconfigurable memFETs crossbar architecture

•The memFET, a new device electrically reconfigurable with storage capability, is presented.•The memFET can be used to implement both logic functions and memory blocks into a crossbar structure.•Based on the memFET a novel technique to design evolvable hardware is developed.•The presented technique allows efficient use of chip capacity.•The hardware adapts itself to computing needs and is fault tolerant. In this work, a new technologic strategy that allows implementing large crossbars formed with memFETs, a new device concept, is introduced. This memFET is an electrically reconfigurable field effect and resistive switching device that can be used to implement logic functions and memory blocks into a crossbar structure, allowing the dynamic logic configuration of the crossbar and simplifying both the design and the implementation of computing hardware. Moreover, taking the advantage of reconfiguration capability of such a technology and architecture we introduce a novel technique to design evolvable hardware where not only the logic functions are changeable (as is the case of the Field Programmable Gate Array, FPGA) but also the physical position of the components on the surface of the integrated circuit. This technology and principle leads towards a new computing paradigm based on what we name Shape Shifting Digital Hardware (SSDH).