Overview of reconfigurable architectures

• Type: Chapter or Part of a Book
• Date: 2008

Authors

João M. P. Cardoso (Author) FEUP; P. C. Diniz (Author) Other

Book

Title: Compilation Techniques for Reconfigurable Architectures

Pages: 7-32

ISBN: 978-0-387-09670-4

Electronic ISBN: 978-0-387-09671-1

Publisher: Springer

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00G-ZXK

DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-09671-1_2

Abstract (EN): In this chapter, we describe the main features of reconfigurable architectures and systems, focusing on reconfigurable fabrics, the underlying vehicle for reconfigurable computing. We begin with a short historical perspective followed by a description and categorization of reconfigurable architectural features, such as their granularity, interconnection topologies, and system-level integration. We describe dynamic reconfigurable features some architectures exhibit as well as the execution models these architectures preferentially expose. Throughout this chapter we illustrate specific architectural features using representative examples of commercial and academic reconfigurable architectures, but without aiming to survey all the efforts on reconfigurable computing architectures. As this book mainly focuses on compilation techniques for computations expressed in high-level programming languages when targeting reconfigurable architectures, we do not extensively describe system-level issues such as overall system organization or integration. Similarly, we have omitted detailed descriptions of architectural approaches that rely on the reconfigurable fabric as building blocks of complex systems. Examples of these blocks are configurable processors and synthesizable IP-cores with parameterized features, e.g., related to register windows, pipeline stages, or instruction-set customizations. We see these architectural definition efforts as the application of domain-specific mapping approaches, of limited scope, but complementary to the general techniques described in Chaps. 4 and 5.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 26