{"title":"Inter-process Communication Using Pipes in FPGA-Based Adaptive Computing","authors":"Ming Liu, Zhonghai Lu, W. Kuehn, A. Jantsch","doi":"10.1109/ISVLSI.2010.103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ISVLSI.2010.103","url":null,"abstract":"In FPGA-based adaptive computing, Inter-Process Communications (IPC) are required to exchange information among hardware processes which time-multiplex the resources in a same reconfigurable region. In this paper, we use pipes for IPC and analyze the performance in terms of throughput, throughput efficiency and latency in switching contexts. We also present two practical implementations using FPGA BRAM and external DDR memory. Experimental results expose the key role that context switching plays in determining the IPC performance at various pipe sizes and data rates.","PeriodicalId":187530,"journal":{"name":"2010 IEEE Computer Society Annual Symposium on VLSI","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130771182","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Recovery Boosting: A Technique to Enhance NBTI Recovery in SRAM Arrays","authors":"Taniya Siddiqua, S. Gurumurthi","doi":"10.1109/ISVLSI.2010.15","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ISVLSI.2010.15","url":null,"abstract":"Negative Bias Temperature Instability (NBTI) is an important lifetime reliability problem in microprocessors. SRAM-based structures within the processor are especially susceptible to NBTI since one of the PMOS devices in the memory cell always has an input of ‘0’. Previously proposed recovery techniques for SRAM cells aim to balance the degradation of the two PMOS devices by attempting to keep their inputs at a logic ‘0’ exactly 50% of the time. However, one of the devices is always in the negative bias condition at any given time. In this paper, we propose a technique called Recovery Boosting that allows both PMOS devices in the memory cell to be put into the recovery mode by slightly modifying the design of conventional SRAM cells. We present the circuit-level design of an issue queue that uses such cells and perform SPICE-level simulations to verify its functionality and quantify area and power consumption. We then conduct an architecture-level evaluation of the performance and reliability of using an area-neutral design of such an issue queue using the M5 simulator and the SPEC CPU2000 benchmark suite. We show that recovery boosting provides a 56% improvement in the static noise margin for the issue queue while having very little impact on power consumption and a negligible loss in performance.","PeriodicalId":187530,"journal":{"name":"2010 IEEE Computer Society Annual Symposium on VLSI","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131057713","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"FGMOS Based Built-In Current Sensor for Low Supply Voltage Analog and Mixed-Signal Circuits Testing","authors":"S. Siskos","doi":"10.1109/ISVLSI.2010.31","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ISVLSI.2010.31","url":null,"abstract":"A simple current mirror using floating-gate MOS transistors (FGMOS) operating in the linear region is used in this work, to design a built-in current sensor (BICS). The important feature in this application is that the voltage drop across the sensing device can be reduced to almost zero value (less than 50 mV). This makes the proposed BICS appropriate for modern very low supply voltage applications. The proposed BICS in conjunction with an RMS-to-DC converter and a novel current window comparator can be used to efficiently achieve supply current monitoring of analog and mixed-signal circuit testing.","PeriodicalId":187530,"journal":{"name":"2010 IEEE Computer Society Annual Symposium on VLSI","volume":"57 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116607985","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A. Karagounis, B. Kotsos, N. Assimakis, E. Petropoulou, A. Polyzos
{"title":"The Impact of Process Faults on Specific Parameters of a 1.9GHz CMOS Mixer","authors":"A. Karagounis, B. Kotsos, N. Assimakis, E. Petropoulou, A. Polyzos","doi":"10.1109/ISVLSI.2010.55","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ISVLSI.2010.55","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents the impact of process faults - such as parameter variations and process variations - on specific parameters of a mixer - like linearity (1 dB CP, IIP3), noise figure, voltage conversion gain, voltage output signal. A review of mathematical types that shows the relations between specifications and parameters of the mixer is the tool to explain the behavior of the circuit under the presence of process shifts and parasitic elements. A differential Gilbert-Cell active mixer with degeneration resistors has been designed in a 90nm CMOS UMC technology to validate the theoretical conclusions and investigate the possibility of restoring the circuit prescriptions to the desired values, varying one or more parameters.","PeriodicalId":187530,"journal":{"name":"2010 IEEE Computer Society Annual Symposium on VLSI","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128707322","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A High-Level Mapping Algorithm Targeting 3D NoC Architectures with Multiple Vdd","authors":"K. Siozios, Iraklis Anagnostopoulos, D. Soudris","doi":"10.1109/ISVLSI.2010.98","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ISVLSI.2010.98","url":null,"abstract":"The communication problem in modern ICs becomes a challenge issue. This paper introduces a high-level mapping algorithm targeting to low-power 3D NoC devices. By appropriately assigning application's functionalities to layers with different supply voltages we achieve reasonable energy savings and temperature reduction. Additionally, our methodology supports real-time adaption on different traffic scenarios. Experimental results show that energy savings up to 19% are feasible, without any area and delay overhead, as compared to architectures powered by only one supply voltage.","PeriodicalId":187530,"journal":{"name":"2010 IEEE Computer Society Annual Symposium on VLSI","volume":"2014 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127544876","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dynamic Power Management on LDPC Decoders","authors":"E. Amador, R. Knopp, V. Rezard, R. Pacalet","doi":"10.1109/ISVLSI.2010.70","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ISVLSI.2010.70","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents a dynamic power management strategy for the iterative decoding of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. We propose an online algorithm for adjusting the operation of a power manageable decoder. Decision making is based upon the monitoring of a convergence metric independent from the message computation kernel. Furthermore we analyze the feasibility of a VLSI implementation for such algorithm. Up to 54% savings in energy were achieved with a relatively low loss on error-correcting performance.","PeriodicalId":187530,"journal":{"name":"2010 IEEE Computer Society Annual Symposium on VLSI","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124057355","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
M. Daneshtalab, M. Ebrahimi, P. Liljeberg, J. Plosila, H. Tenhunen
{"title":"High-Performance TSV Architecture for 3-D ICs","authors":"M. Daneshtalab, M. Ebrahimi, P. Liljeberg, J. Plosila, H. Tenhunen","doi":"10.1109/ISVLSI.2010.24","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ISVLSI.2010.24","url":null,"abstract":"Three-dimensional integrated circuits (3-D ICs) outperform traditional planar ICs in terms of performance, packaging density, interconnection power consumption, and functionality. Since the performance of 3-D ICs employing Through Silicon Vias (TSVs) depends on vertical interlayer interconnects, in this paper we present a high-performance bus architecture for TSVs.","PeriodicalId":187530,"journal":{"name":"2010 IEEE Computer Society Annual Symposium on VLSI","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127751337","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hybrid QoS Method for Networks-on-Chip","authors":"Shijun Lin, Jianghong Shi, Huihuang Chen","doi":"10.1109/ISVLSI.2010.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ISVLSI.2010.12","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, we propose a hybrid method to provide Quality of Service (QoS) for Networks-on-Chip (NoC). This method combines the advantages of connection-based schemes and connection-less schemes. Thus, compared with traditional methods, this method guarantees the latency between one flit’s generation in the source node and its reception in the destination node, supports a wide range of traffic types such as latency critical, low bandwidth traffic and streaming data which only have bandwidth requirement, and has high link-bandwidth utilization. Moreover, the NoC which supports the proposed method is implemented. Simulation and synthesis results show that this method can guarantee the bandwidth and latency well and is relatively low-cost.","PeriodicalId":187530,"journal":{"name":"2010 IEEE Computer Society Annual Symposium on VLSI","volume":"77 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132311914","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
S. Xydis, C. Skouroumounis, K. Pekmestzi, D. Soudris, G. Economakos
{"title":"Efficient High Level Synthesis Exploration Methodology Combining Exhaustive and Gradient-Based Pruned Searching","authors":"S. Xydis, C. Skouroumounis, K. Pekmestzi, D. Soudris, G. Economakos","doi":"10.1109/ISVLSI.2010.56","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ISVLSI.2010.56","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents a methodology for fast and efficient Design Space Exploration during High Level Synthesis. An augmented instance of the design space is studied taking under consideration the effects of both compiler- and architectural-level transformations onto the final datapath. A new gradient-based pruning technique has been developed, which evaluates large portions of the augmented solution space in a quick manner. At a second level, the proposed pruning technique is combined with exhaustive exploration in order to guarantee the quality of design solutions. We show that the proposed methodology delivers (i) higher quality designs than exploration methods which do not account the introduced extended design space, (ii) with considerable reductions of the exploration’s runtime and (iii) efficient convergence to global optima.","PeriodicalId":187530,"journal":{"name":"2010 IEEE Computer Society Annual Symposium on VLSI","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133249306","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
D. Volpato, Alexandre K. I. Mendonça, L. Santos, José Luís Almada Güntzel
{"title":"A Post-compiling Approach that Exploits Code Granularity in Scratchpads to Improve Energy Efficiency","authors":"D. Volpato, Alexandre K. I. Mendonça, L. Santos, José Luís Almada Güntzel","doi":"10.1109/ISVLSI.2010.66","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ISVLSI.2010.66","url":null,"abstract":"Since most of the energy spent in embedded processors is consumed when accessing instruction and data caches, scratchpad memories (SPMs) are promising for energy efficiency, because they require less energy per access than caches do. Most SPM mapping techniques require the availability of source code and are therefore unable to treat third-party software. This work handles precompiled software while simultaneously mapping code and data elements into SPMs. It evaluates energy savings for code elements defined either by procedure or basic block (BB) boundaries. For a subset of the MiBench program suite, the experimental results show that the adoption of BB boundaries leads to average energy savings of 30% for a 1KB SPM, which are 10% better than when procedure boundaries are considered. For procedure boundaries to achieve average energy savings comparable to those obtained with BBs, SPM size must be increased to 4KB, resulting in a 31% area overhead in the memory subsystem. Higher savings, on the order of 40%, were achieved for real-life use cases exhibiting BBs with high profit/cost ratios. This work also shows that, when exploiting the finer-grain BB boundaries to achieve higher savings, relocatable object files are the most efficient binary media (average patching time is 2.05 seconds), despite the higher number of resulting code elements (mapping takes at most 10 ms).","PeriodicalId":187530,"journal":{"name":"2010 IEEE Computer Society Annual Symposium on VLSI","volume":"192 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123850204","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}