Abstract: The theory of Configurable Computing was proposed forty years ago. Foreign scholars has achieved some substantial results in the past decade, however the research in China has just begun. This article describes firstly the history of configurable computing technology, research progress at home and abroad, and the two mainly research methods which are respectively chip-based and platform-based. In this paper, the platform-based research approach is focused on because it is more suitable for automatic target recognition(ATR) than the chip-based method. Then the basic principle of the configuration is introduced, and the configurable computing system architecture model and the calculation model are analyzed. It is also predicated that the topology of the platform-based configurable computing architecture in the future should be a structure of multiple FPGA with embedded processor which interconnect with each other by high-speed serial interfaces. Finally, the application of Configurable Computing technology in the fields of ATR is mainly discussed which is based on the international research results and key technologies of ATR.