[wyatwerp]

Does it matter which workloads always need software? If anything, the networking use-case shows that a workload, any workload, that is ubiquitous & can benefit tremendously from programmable hardware is what matters.

In a shared-memory system, just implementing libc (or the Java VM, or the Erlang VM) on an FPGA might be a win. It has to be enough bang for the buck for FPGA, but not so much that somebody would make fixed-hardware for it.

On that note, haven't networking end-points had fixed hardware also for ages now? Maybe it is inevitable that a successful application of FPGA's breeds interest in fixed-function hardware for it.