Title
Design flow for embedded FPGAs based on a flexible architecture template
Abstract
Modern digital signal processing applications have an increasing demand for computational power while needing to preserve low power dissipation and high flexibility. For many applications, the growth of algorithmic complexity is already faster than the growth of computational power provided by discrete general purpose processors [1]. A typical approach to address this problem is the combination of a processor core with dedicated accelerators. Since changes in standards or algorithms can change the demands on the accelerators, an attractive alternative to highly customised VLSI-macros is the use of reconfigurable embedded FPGAs (eFPGAs). First commercial products combining a general purpose processor core and an embedded FPGA recently emerged (e.g. Stretch S6000 [2], Menta eFPGA-augmented CPUs [3]). For many digital signal processing applications, a significantly improved efficiency in terms of power dissipation, throughput and chip area can be achieved by tailoring both the processor core and the reconfigurable accelerator to the given application domain [4]. In this work, a methodology to design highly customisable eFPGA-architectures starting from a high level description is presented. The design framework elaborated during this work enables a physically optimised VLSI-design of the specified eFPGA and aims to support simulation of the according eFPGA-macros both on a functional and netlist-level by providing an elementary configuration tool based on the same high level description as the eFPGA-architecture.
Year
DOI
Venue
2008
10.1145/1403375.1403391
Proceedings of the conference on Design, automation and test in Europe
Keywords
Field
DocType
power dissipation,computer architecture,chip,embedded computing,broadcasting,vlsi design,digital signal processing,application software,vlsi,processor cores,field programmable gate arrays,switches,integrated circuit design,design flow
Digital signal processing,Computer architecture,Computer science,Parallel computing,Field-programmable gate array,Design flow,Integrated circuit design,Application domain,Application software,Very-large-scale integration,Multi-core processor,Embedded system
Conference
ISSN
Citations 
PageRank 
1530-1591
11
0.68
References 
Authors
5
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
B. Neumann1261.86
T. von Sydow2353.22
Holger Blume322042.84
Tobias G. Noll419937.51