A multi-core signal processor for heterogeneous reconfigurable computing

Abstract

Reconfigurable computing holds the promise of delivering ASIC-like performance while preserving run-time flexibility of processors. In many application domains, the use of FPGAs is limited by area, power, and timing overheads. Coarse-grained reconfigurable architectures offer higher computation density, but at the price of rather being domain specific. Programmability is also a major issue related to all of the described solutions. This paper describes a heterogeneous multi-core system-on-chip that exploits different flavours of reconfigurable computing, merged together in a high parallel on-chip and off-chip interconnect utilized for both data and configuration. The aim of this work is to deliver a single monolithic engine that capitalizes on the strong points of different reconfigurable fabrics, while providing a friendly programming interface. The user is ultimately able to manage a broad spectrum of different applications, exploiting the most efficient means of computation through utilization of each kernel, while retaining a software-oriented development environment as much as possible.