Design, implementation and analysis of a run-time configurable Memory Management Unit on FPGA

Abstract

In this paper, we describe the design of a configurable Memory Management Unit (MMU) and its prototype implementation on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). We present analytical results of scaling the size of the second level software-managed Unified Translation Lookaside Buffer (UTLB) in terms of effect on the overall hit rate. Three design-time configurations with 16, 32, and 64 entries were used for this study. Critical path analysis of the logical design running on Altera Stratix-V FPGA is presented together with a description of optimization techniques employed in order to improve static timing performance. These optimization techniques assist in reaching 22.75% speed-up compared to non-optimized design. Moreover, maximum operating frequencies of 265, 225 and 200 MHz were achieved for UTLB sizes of 16, 32, and 64 entries, respectively. We quote worst case energy consumption figures with random input stimuli together with FPGA resource utilization characteristics for the above mentioned configurations. For resource-constrained or speed-critical hardware designs the 32-entry UTLB configuration provides a decent trade-off while the 16-entry configuration poses unsatisfactory performance. However, our target operating frequency of 200 MHz was eventually reached also for the 64-entry UTLB and hence it is our preferred option for most instantiations.