Switched memory architectures - moving beyond systolic arrays

Abstract

Although current ASIC, FPGA and reconfigurable computing technologies support on-chip memories and hardware reconfiguration, these features are not exploited by systolic arrays and their associated synthesis methods. We propose a new architectural model called switched memory architecture (SMA) to overcome these limitations. SMAS are (strictly) more powerful than systolic arrays, are suitable for a wide range of target technologies, and can be derived through the well developed design methodology of the polyhedral model. We illustrate the power of SMAs by showing how any SARE with a one dimensional schedule can be implemented as an SMA without any slowdown. We formally characterize the class of allocation functions that are suitable for SMAs and also describe a systematic procedure for deriving SMAs from SAREs.