Reconfigurable Computing

Reconfigurable Computing: 

Reconfigurable Computing submitted to- presented by-

Reconfigurable Computing: 

Reconfigurable Computing Standard Def inition : A reconf igurable computer is a device which computes by using post-fabrication spatial co m ponents of computer elements.

What is Reconfigurable Computing?: 

What is Reconfigurable Computing? Computation using hardware that can adapt at the logic level to solve specific problems Why is this interesting ? Some applications are poorly suited to microprocessor. VLSI “explosion” provides increasing resources. Hardware/Software Relatively new research area.

Current systems:-: 

Current systems:- There are two classes of architecture: Hybrid computers Fully FPGA based computers

Why is Custom Logic Faster Than Software?: 

Why is Custom Logic Faster Than Software? Specialization Instruction set may not provide the operations your program needs Multipliers Dividers Instruction Memory Processors need lots of memory to hold the instructions that make up a program and to hold intermediate results. Bit Width Mismatches In general, processors have a fixed bit width, and all computations are performed on that many bits Multimedia vector instructions (MMX) a response to this

Processor + FPGA: 

Processor + FPGA 1. FPGA serves as coprocessor for data intensive application s. Three possibilities Backplane bus (e.g. PCI) Proc chip daughtercard FPGA chip FPGA Proc 2. FPGA serves as embedded computer for low latency transfer.

Processor + FPGA (cont..): 

Processor + FPGA (cont..) FPGA logic embedded inside processor. RF ALU FPGA Processor 3. Processor integration

Reconfiguration: 

Reconfiguration Reconfiguration methodology Static Partially static (=partial reconfiguration) Dynamic

Coprocessor based approach (II): 

Coprocessor based approach (II) Altera ARC-PCI

Coprocessor based approach (III): 

Coprocessor based approach (III) Compaq Pamette

Coprocessor based approach (IV): 

Coprocessor based approach (IV) Altera´s Excalibur device Embedded Processor: ARM, MIPS or NIOS

Coprocessor based approach (V): 

Coprocessor based approach (V) Chameleon Systems, Inc.

Why Compute With FPGAs?: 

Why Compute With FPGAs? Huge performance gap between software and hand-designed hardware systems Hardware systems not so good for general computing Big design, cost barriers to implementation Reconfigurable systems offer best-of-both-worlds Run-time programmability

Good Applications for Reconfigurable Computing: 

Good Applications for Reconfigurable Computing Relatively small application graph FPGAs have limited capacity Simple control flow helps a lot Data Parallelism Execute same computations on many independent data elements Pipeline computations through the hardware Small and/or varying bit widths Take advantage of the ability to customize the size of operators

Reconfigurable Computing Successes: 

Reconfigurable Computing Successes RSA Decryption DNA Sequence Matching Signal Processing Emulation Cryptographic Attacks

FPGAs vs CPUs: 

FPGA s vs CPUs Main functions…. Capacity : Instructions are very dense representation, logic blocks aren’t Tools : Compilers for reconfigurable logic aren’t very good One approach to capacity is to exploit the 90-10 rule of software Programmable-reconfigurable processors.

Advantages of RC: 

Advantages of RC Relative to microprocessors: on average a higher percentage of peak (or raw) computational density is achieved with reconfigurable devices. Fine-grain flexibility leads to exploitation of problem specific parallelism at many levels. Also, many different computation models (or patterns) can be supported. In general, it is possible to match problem characteristics to hardware, through the use of problem specific architectures and low-level circuit specialization. Modern FPGAs make good system-level components: Even in an application with fixed algorithms, reconfigurable devices may offer advantages over a full-custom or ASIC approach: FPGAs are processes drivers, therefore a generation ahead of ASIC. Increasing NREs for ASIC and full-custom has pushed "cross-over" point way out. Time to market advantage. Programmability leads to: • project risk management • extended product life-times

Comparison of reconfiguration: 

Comparison of reconfiguration Programmable Fixed Reconfigurable Computes any computable function. Function is defined after fabrication. Connections on fabric are fixed. Computes one function. Function is defined before fabrication. Connections on fabric are fixed. Computes a number of functions. Function is defined after fabrication. Connections on fabric are programmable.

FPGAs are Reconfigurable: 

FPGAs are Reconfigurable Commercial applications have not taken advantages of reconfigurability . Xilinx/ Altera haven’t done much to help. Methodologies/tools nearly nonexistent. Reconfiguration uses : Field upgrades . product life extension, changing requirements. In system board-level testing and field diagnostics. Tolerance to manufacturing faults. Risk-management in system development early nonexistent.

Any queries……: 

Any queries……