Reconfigurable Coprocessor for Multimedia Application Domain

A new reconfigurable architectural template is presented. Such a template is composed of coarse-grained and fine-grained reconfigurable datapath and control to obtain performances at custom designed chip level. To show the adaptability/performance of such architectural template, the architecture has been customized (i.e. datapath and control features of the template have been properly sized) for multimedia application domain. To evaluate complexity and maximum clock frequency of the proposed architecture, it has been synthesized using Synopsys Design Compiler on a standard-cell 0.18 μ m technology. Estimated number of transistors is 335 K, while maximum allowable frequency is 460 MHz. Performances have been evaluated comparing the number of clock cycles and the processing time required to process application domain dominant kernels with commercial devices: we obtained up to 95% reduction with respect to ARM and up to 94% reduction with respect to TMS320C5510 in terms of clock cycles. Salvatore M. Carta (1997 Electronic Eng. Master. 2002 Electronics and Computer Science PhD) joined the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering of the University of Cagliari, Italy in 1998 as PhD student. From 2005 he has been assistant professor in Department of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Cagliari. His research interests focus mainly on architectures, software and tools for embedded and portable computing, with particular emphasis on: languages, architectures and compilers for reconfigurable and parallel computing; Networks-on-chip; Operating systems for multiprocessor-systems-on-chip; low power real-time scheduling algorithms. Danilo Pani (2002 Electronic Eng. Master, 2006 Electronics and Computer Science PhD) joined the Department of Electrical and Electronics engineering of the University of Cagliari, Italy in 2002 as Electronics and Computer Science PhD student. His primary research interests are in the area of Digital Signal Processing architectures and systems, Biomedical Engineering, Reconfigurable Systems and Cooperative VLSI architectures for distributed computing. Luigi Raffo (1989 Master, 1994 Electronics and Computer Science PhD) joined Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering of the University of Cagliari, Italy in 1994 as assistant professor. From 1998 he has been professor of Digital System Design, Integrated Systems Architectures and Microelectronics at the same Department. His research activity is mainly in the design of low-power analog and digital architectures/chips. He has been project manager of many local and international projects. He is author of more than 50 international papers in the field.     

Design Methodology of a Low-Energy Reconfigurable Single-Chip DSP System

In this paper, we first present a reconfigurable architecture template for low-power digital signal processing, and then an energy conscious design methodology to bridge the algorithm to architecture gap. The energy efficiency of such an architecture and the effectiveness of the methodology are demonstrated in case study implementations targeting baseband voice processing and digital signal processing.     

A New FPGA for DSP Applications Integrating BIST Capabilities

This work proposes a new FPGA architecture, to meet the requirements of signal processing and testing of current system-on-chip designs. The proposed architecture provides the hardware reuse and the reconfigurability advantages of an FPGA, not only for the system functionality, but also for the system testing, while keeping the performance level required by current signal processing applications. This paper presents the new FPGA model, along with preliminary experimental results that clearly show the possible advantages at the system level of merging design and test in a reconfigurable device.     

Domain Specific Reconfigurable Processing Core Architecture for Digital Filtering Applications

This paper presents a reconfigurable processing core architecture targeted for digital filtering applications. The architecture can be configured to execute linear phase FIR filter, DLMS adaptive FIR filter, (I)FFT, and 2D-(I)DCT with high performance and low energy consumption by reducing heavy routing resources used extensively in other reconfigurable architectures. The pipeline depth of the multipliers in the processing core is locally controlled so that power consumption is reduced by minimizing unnecessary register switching is saved. We have shown that the proposed processing core consumes less energy and has better or comparable performance than that of the existing reconfigurable architectures proposed in academia and industry, that have been tailored for these applications. The circuit is designed in 0.35-m CMOS processing technology with 3.3 V supply voltage.Sangjin Hong received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in EECS from the University of California, Berkeley and his Ph.D in EECS from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is currently with the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Stony Brook University - State University of New York. Before joining SUNY, he has worked at Ford Aerospace Corp. Computer Systems Division as a systems engineer. He also worked at Samsung Electronics in Korea as a technical consultant. His current research interests are in the areas of low power reconfigurable SoC design and optimization for DSP and wireless communication systems. He has served as a member of technical committee and track chair for numerous IEEE technical conferences.Shu-Shin Chin was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, ROC, in 1974. He received his M.S. and Ph.D degrees in electrical and computer engineering from Stony Brook University—State University of New Yorkin 1999 and 2004, respectively. His research interests include low-power digital circuits, and coarse-grained reconfigurable architectures for high-performance DSP systems.     

一种流水线ADC数字域动态可重构架构

分析流水线ADC数字域校准算法工作原理及实现电路的具体特点.为解决数字校准算法系数实时更新的问题,在PipeRench结构的基础上结合多重上下文动态可重构方式,提出了一种针对流水线ADC数字域的动态可重构电路.对该架构中的关键电路模块进行了设计并对整个电路架构进行了仿真,结果表明该架构可以实现流水线ADC数字域的动态重构.     

基于可重构FPGA技术的自适应FIR滤波器的实现

有限冲激响应(FIR)滤波器设计遇到的难题是滤波要进行大量乘法运算,即使是在全定制的专用集成电路中也会导致过大的面积与功耗.对于用硬件实现系数是常量的专用滤波器,可以通过分解系数变为应用加、减和移位而实现乘法.FIR滤波器的复杂性主要由用于系数乘法的加法器/减法器的数量决定.而对于自适应FIR滤波器,大多数场合下可用数字信号处理器(DSP)或CPU通过软件编程的方法来实现,但是对于要求高速运算的场合,VLSI实现是很好的选择.基于这一考虑,可以用符号数的正则表示(CSD)码表示系数, 再利用可重构现场可编程门阵列(FPGA)技术实现.可重构结构的应用,能保证系统的其余部分同时处于运行状态时实现FIR滤波器系数的更新.文中利用CSD码和可重构思想,提出了用FPGA实现自适应FIR滤波器的一种方案.     

基于DSP的FIR滤波器的C语言算法实现

有限冲激响应(FIR)滤波器是数字信号处理系统中最基本的元件,具有严格的线性相频特性,同时其单位抽样响应是有限长的,系统稳定。阐述了FIR的基本原理,并进行了MATLAB仿真。基于TI公司的TMS320VC5402 DSP硬件平台,设计了FIR低通滤波器。采用C语言算法,利用集成开发环境代码调式器(Code Composer Studio,CCS)分别观察了输入和输出波形,验证了此算法的准确性和高效性,对信号处理及信号传输有重要的研究意义。     

可配置的2D空域滤波操作VLSI架构研究

提出了一种可配置的支持红外自动目标识别应用中不同窗口操作的2D空域滤波类操作VLSI架构,从SoC角度考虑能够更好地满足不同的图像处理应用．该架构与已报道的对于该类操作的其他结构解决方案进行比较,新结构具有较高的处理速率．新结构在SIMC0．18μmCMOS工艺下实现,其时钟频率为135Mhz,功耗为52mW,面积约为128．2KGates,峰值处理性能达到6．6GOPs．     

面向密码算法的异步可重构结构设计

针对FPGA和ASIC在实现密码算法时的不足之处，本文介绍了一种面向密码算法的异步可重构结构。该结构的运算功能由一个可重构单元阵列提供，数据通路由可重构单元之间的相互连接实现，异步通信采用握手信号完成。在分析握手信号传输延时对可重构结构的影响后，文章提出了一种适合该结构的单元信号传输握手控制电路。同时在单元结构中，使用改进的DSDCVS逻辑来设计其运算电路，减小了单元的面积，提高了单元的工作速度。应用实例表明，在实现密码算法时，面向密码算法的异步可重构结构表现出了比FPGA更好的性能。     

Reconfigurable Computing for Digital Signal Processing: A Survey

Steady advances in VLSI technology and design tools have extensively expanded the application domain of digital signal processing over the past decade. While application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and programmable digital signal processors (PDSPs) remain the implementation mechanisms of choice for many DSP applications, increasingly new system implementations based on reconfigurable computing are being considered. These flexible platforms, which offer the functional efficiency of hardware and the programmability of software, are quickly maturing as the logic capacity of programmable devices follows Moore's Law and advanced automated design techniques become available. As initial reconfigurable technologies have emerged, new academic and commercial efforts have been initiated to support power optimization, cost reduction, and enhanced run-time performance.This paper presents a survey of academic research and commercial development in reconfigurable computing for DSP systems over the past fifteen years. This work is placed in the context of other available DSP implementation media including ASICs and PDSPs to fully document the range of design choices available to system engineers. It is shown that while contemporary reconfigurable computing can be applied to a variety of DSP applications including video, audio, speech, and control, much work remains to realize its full potential. While individual implementations of PDSP, ASIC, and reconfigurable resources each offer distinct advantages, it is likely that integrated combinations of these technologies will provide more complete solutions.     

一款应用于多模式无线发射机的65nm可配置低功耗滤波器

针对多模式(GSM/TD-SCDMA/WCDMA)无线发射机设计了一款可配置的4阶有源RC低通滤波器.滤波器的截止频率通过数字配置运放外围的无源器件进行改变,从而满足不同模式的带宽要求;同时,滤波器中运放的增益带宽积(GBW)也进行相应的配置,实现滤波器的低功耗设计.针对后者,对滤波器中运放的增益带宽积对滤波器的传递函数的影响进行了定量的分析,提出了功耗优化理论.整个电路结构是在65 nmGP工艺下实现的,电源电压为1V,芯片核的面积仅为0.08 mm2.滤波器在三个模式下测试得到的IIP3均大于25 dBm.整个电路的功耗在GSM和TD-SCDMA下为0.8 mW,在WCDMA模式下为1.6mW.同时,滤波器在三个模式下传递曲线的测试结果证实了文中的功耗优化理论.     

一种基于DSP和FPGA的图像处理系统

设计了一种以FPGA为数据采集逻辑控制单元,以DSP为高端图像处理单元的数字图像处理系统。介绍了该系统的硬件组成、工作原理。从视频编码单元、图像处理单元和视频输出单元对整个系统的构成和设计进行了描述,分析了系统设计时的各个关键技术环节。     

基于TMS320C5402的FIR数字滤波器的设计

DSP由于其本身具有并行的硬件乘法器、流水结构以及快速的片内存储器等资源，其技术已广泛地应用于数字信号处理的各个领域。本文主要研究了FIR滤波器的窗函数算法的基本思想及在定点DSP芯片上实现FIR数字滤波器设计方法，讨论了在具体实现时如何提高数字滤波器的计算精度和防止输出结果溢出问题，最后给出在C54系列DSK进行验证的程序和滤波前后的时域、频域的对比图。实践证明，该滤波器准确度高、稳定性好，易于移植使用，具有较强的实用性与灵活性。     

利用插值法提高采样率的滤波器设计

随着数字信号的迅速发展,在现代数字系统中对超过单一采样率的处理已经越来越普遍,这直接导致了多采样率处理作为数字信号处理(DSP)中一个新的分支领域的出现。其中在进行D/A(数字/模拟)转换的场合,往往需要提高数字信号采样率来降低对模拟滤波器的要求。论述利用插值的方法来提高采样速率,介绍了内插原理和给出了一种多相滤波器的设计方法,使性能和资源占有率得到较大的突破,最大限度地减少资源消耗。     

基于DSP Builder和FPGA的IIR滤波器设计

针对传统的基于现场可编程门阵列（FPGA）的数字滤波器设计所需周期长,提出了基于dsp builder和FPGA的滤波器设计,完全实现自顶向下的设计流程。在此基础上设计实现四节级联IIR,并结合MATLAB强大计算功能,提出了利用MATLAB和Quartus II联合仿真算法;使输出复杂的数据变为波形,易于观察仿真结果,增强了Quartus的仿真功能。结果表明设计的IIR滤波器完全达到设计要求。     

基于 DSPC6678多核平台的实时任务调度架构设计分析

分析了数字信号处理器（DSP） C6678的多核模式,设计了一种基于C6678高速多核DSP硬件平台的实时任务调度软件架构,实现了实时任务调度。通过实际测试,整体设计满足了设计指标。     

Processor Enhancements for Media Streaming Applications

The development of more processing demanding applications on the Internet (video broadcasting) on one hand and the popularity of recent devices at the user level (digital cameras, wireless videophones, ...) on the other hand introduce challenges at several levels. Today, such devices present processing capabilities and bandwidth settings that are inefficient to manage scalable QoS requirements in a typical media delivery framework. In this paper, we present an impact study of such a scalable data representation optimized for QoS (Matching Pursuit 3D algorithms) on processor architectures to achieve the best performance and power efficiency. A review of state of the art techniques for processor architecture enhancement let us expect promising opportunities from the latest developments in the reconfigurable computing research field. We present here the first design steps of an efficient reconfigurable coprocessor especially designed to cope with future video delivery and multimedia processing requirements. Architecture perspectives are proposed with respect to low development cost constraints, backward compatibilty and easy coprocessor usage using an original strategy based on a hardware/software codesign methodology.Sebastien Bilavarn received the M.S. degree from Rennes University (France) in 1998 and the PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from South Brittany University in 2002. Since June 2002, he works as a post-doc fellow at Signal Processing Institute, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL). Sebastiens research interests include design methodologies for embedded systems, reconfigurable computing and Digital Signal Processing. Currently, his work focuses on using Adaptive Computing Systems to optimise computer architectures, which is a collaboration with the Architecture Research Lab of the System Technology Labs, Intel Corporation.Eric Debes received a M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Supélec, France in 1996, a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University Darmstadt, Germany in 1997 and a PhD in Signal Processing from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Since 2001 he has been a Researcher in the Architecture Research Lab of the System Technology Labs, Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, California. Erics research interests include image and video coding and processing algorithms as well as computer architecture and parallelism. At Intel he has been working together with different processor teams and microarchitecture research groups on the definition of new media and communication features (including new SIMD and streaming instructions, multicore processors and low-power architectures) in the CPU and the chipset to provide better media application performance and end user quality of service with a given system and processor power envelope and/or energy budget. More recently Eric has been working on system-on-chip modelling, processor and system power estimation and architecture design space exploration for consumer electronics applications. He is a member of the IEEE, of the ACM and of the SPIE.Pierre Vandergheynst received the M.S. degree in physics and the Ph.D. degree in mathematical physics from the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium, in 1995 and 1998 respectively. From 1998 to 2001, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher with the Signal Processing Laboratory, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), in Lausanne, Switzerland. He is now an Assistant Professor of Visual Information Processing at EPFL, where is research focuses on computer vision, data processing and mathematical tools for visual information processing. Prof. Vandergheynst is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Signal Processing and member of the IEEE.Jean-Philippe Diguet received the M.S degree and the PhD degree from Rennes University (France) in 1993 and 1996 respectively. His thesis focused on the estimation of hardware complexity and algorithmic transforms for architectural synthesis. Then he joined the IMEC in Leuven (Belgium) where he worked as a post-doc fellow on the minimization of the power consumption of memories at the system-level. From 1997 to 2002, he has been an associated professor at the South Brittany University and member of the LESTER laboratory. In 2003/04, he has initiated and created an innovating company in the domain of short range wireless communications. In 2004, he obtains a CNRS researcher position. His current work focuses on design space exploration of embedded systems, real-time scheduling in the context of hardware/software architecture configurations. Within the LESTER laboratory, he heads the “Design Trotter” team focusing on EDA methods and tools.     

一种FIR滤波器的FPGA实现

数字滤波是语音与图像处理和模式识别等应用中的一种基本的数字信号处理部件。文中提出了一种采用FPGA器件并利用窗函数实现线性FIR数字滤波器的方案,使用Xilinx公司的XCS10FPGS器件设计了一个8阶8位FIR滤波器,阶数和位数以及滤波器特性均可方便地更改。     

电子侦察中的信号处理方法体系

电子侦察采用截获信号分析的手段,获取电子干扰和情报侦察所需要的信息。随着数字化和软件化的发展趋势,数字信号处理必定在其中发挥十分重要的作用。近年来,电子侦察技术的进步在很大程度上体现在信号处理技术上。简要地综述了在电子侦察中所使用的信号处理方法的基本思路和手段,试图论述其方法体系,并提出一些观点和评述。     

Scalable Linear Array Architecture with Data-Driven Control for Ultrahigh-Speed Vector Quantization

Current and future requirements for adaptive real-time image compression challenge even the capabilities of highly parallel realizations in terms of hardware performance. Previously proposed linear array structures for full-search vector quantization do not offer scalability and adaptivity in this context, because they require separate data/control pins for dynamically updating the codevectors and complicated interlock mechanisms to ensure that the regular data flow is not corrupted as a result of updates. We explore the design space for full-search vector quantizers and propose a novel linear processor array architecture in which global wiring is limited to clock and power supply distribution, thus allowing high-speed processing in spite of only limited communication with the host via the boundary processors. The resulting fully pipelined design is not only area-efficient for VLSI implementation but is also readily scalable and offers extremely high performance.