The MORPHEUS Heterogeneous Dynamically Reconfigurable Platform

Reconfigurable computing offers a wide range of low cost and efficient solutions for embedded systems. The proper choice of the reconfigurable device, the granularity of its processing elements and its memory architecture highly depend on the type of application and their data flow. Existing solutions either offer fine grain FPGAs, which rely on a hardware synthesis flow and offer the maximum degree of flexibility, or coarser grain solutions, which are usually more suitable for a particular type of data flow and applications. In this paper, we present the MORPHEUS architecture, a versatile reconfigurable heterogeneous System-on-Chip targeting streaming applications. The presented architecture exploits different reconfigurable technologies at several computation granularities that efficiently address the different applications needs. In order to efficiently exploit the presented architecture, we implemented a complete software solution to map C applications to the reconfigurable architecture. In this paper, we describe the complete toolset and provide concrete use cases of the architecture.     

A Parallel Dynamically Reconfigurable Architecture Designed for Flexible Application-Tailored Hardware/Software Systems in Future Mobile Communication

The evolving of current and future broadband access techniques into the wireless domain introduces new and flexible network architectures with difficult and interesting challenges. The system designers are faced with a challenging set of problems that stem from access mechanisms, energy conservation, error rate, transmission speed characteristics of the wireless links and mobility aspects. This paper presents first the major challenges in realizing flexible microelectronic system solutions for future mobile communication applications. Based thereupon, the architecture design of flexible system-on-chip solutions in the digital baseband processing for future mobile radio devices is discussed. The focus of the paper is the introduction of a new parallel and dynamically reconfigurable hardware architecture tailored to this application area. Its performance issues and potential are discussed by the implementation of a flexible and computation-intensive component of future mobile terminals.An erratum to this article can be found at     

Micro-Task Processing in Heterogeneous Reconfigurable Systems

New reconfigurable computing architectures are introduced to overcome some of the limitations of conventional microprocessors and fine-grained reconfigurable devices (e.g., FPGAs). One of the new promising architectures are Configurable System-on-Chip (CSoC) solutions. They were designed to offer high computational performance for real-time signal processing and for a wide range of applications exhibiting high degrees of parallelism. The programming of such systems is an inherently challenging problem due to the lack of an programming model. This paper describes a novel heterogeneous system architecture for signal processing and data streaming applications. It offers high computational performance and a high degree of flexibility and adaptability by employing a micro Task Controller (mTC) unit in conjunction with programmable and configurable hardware. The hierarchically organized architecture provides a programming model, allows an efficient mapping of applications and is shown to be easy scalable to future VLSI technologies. Several mappings of commonly used digital signal processing algorithms for future telecommunication and multimedia systems and implementation results are given for a standard-cell ASIC design realization in 0.18 micron 6-layer UMC CMOS technology.     

Agent-based reconfigurable architecture for real-time object tracking

Most conventional object tracking algorithms are implemented on general-purpose processors in software due to its great flexibility. However, the real-time performance is hard to achieve due to the inherent characteristics of the sequential processing of these processors. To tackle this issue, a reconfigurable system-on-chip (rSoC) platform with microprocessors and FPGAs is applied in this paper. To simplify the hardware/software interface, a Belief–Desire–Intention (BDI)-based multi-agent architecture is proposed as the unified framework. Then an agent-based task graph and two heuristic partitioning methods are proposed to partition the hardware and software on an rSoC platform. Compared to the module-based architecture, this BDI-based multi-agent architecture provides more efficiency, flexibility, autonomy, and scalability for the real-time tracking systems. A particle swarm optimization (PSO)-based object detection and tracking algorithm is applied to evaluate the proposed architecture. Extensive experimental results of object tracking demonstrate that the proposed architecture is efficient and highly robust with real-time performance.     

面向基带处理的异构多核架构软硬件平台设计

通过研究现代通信系统集中化处理架构中基带处理单元(BB U)的特点,将异构多核处理器应用于BB U中,并提出将物理层算法与控制分离的观点.在ARM+DSP的异构多核中,ARM完成物理层控制,DSP完成物理层算法的功能,提升了BB U基带处理能力,并给出完整的BB U硬件架构以及功能实现.提出了一种应用于基带处理中的异构多核软件架构,从软件层面上实现了对底层硬件的虚拟化,引入了中间件的概念,屏蔽了ARM与DSP操作系统上的差异,并给出基于Linux的非对称系统(AMP)的构建及移植方法,包括异构多核的BootLoader、AMP系统的设计与移植.     

Real-time hardware–software embedded vision system for ITS smart camera implemented in Zynq SoC

The article demonstrates the usefulness of heterogeneous System on Chip (SoC) devices in smart cameras used in intelligent transportation systems (ITS). In a compact, energy efficient system the following exemplary algorithms were implemented: vehicle queue length estimation, vehicle detection, vehicle counting and speed estimation (using multiple virtual detection lines), as well as vehicle type (local binary features and SVM classifier) and colour (k-means classifier and YCbCr colourspace analysis) recognition. The solution exploits the hardware–software architecture, i.e. the combination of reconfigurable resources and the efficient ARM processor. Most of the modules were implemented in hardware, using Verilog HDL, taking full advantage of the possible parallelization and pipeline, which allowed to obtain real-time image processing. The ARM processor is responsible for executing some parts of the algorithm, i.e. high-level image processing and analysis, as well as for communication with the external systems (e.g. traffic lights controllers). The demonstrated results indicate that modern SoC systems are a very interesting platform for advanced ITS systems and other advanced embedded image processing, analysis and recognition applications.     

A Flexible and Energy-Efficient Coarse-Grained Reconfigurable Architecture for Mobile Systems

Two of the most important design issues for next generation handheld devices are wireless networking and the processing of multimedia content. Both applications rely heavily on computationally intensive digital signal processing algorithms. Programmable architectures that keep pace with the increasing performance requirements become more and more power hungry. This is problematic for a battery powered mobile device, since it has only a limited amount of energy available. Conversely, dedicated architectures are too inflexible to keep pace with changing standards and feature sets. A mobile device requires high-performance, flexibility and (energy-)efficiency. These contradicting requirements need to be balanced in the system architecture of a mobile device. In this paper a heterogeneous architecture of domain specific processing tiles is proposed. The focal point is the coarse-grained reconfigurable architecture of the Montium processing tile, which is designed to execute digital signal processing algorithms energy-efficiently.     

可重构密码处理结构中重构机制及对性能的影响

重构机制对可重构密码处理系统的性能有着重要的影响,该文从全局、局部、静态、动态几方面提出了流水化可重构密码处理结构中重构机制的分类,给出了各种机制的吞吐率和延迟公式,并分析了几种机制的性能和实现代价,最后给出了在采用局部动态重构机制的可重构密码处理结构中密码处理的性能。     

Partitioning Methodology for Heterogeneous Reconfigurable Functional Units

A partitioning methodology between the reconfigurable hardware blocks of different granularity, which are embedded in a generic heterogeneous architecture, is presented. The fine-grain reconfigurable logic is realized by an FPGA unit, while the coarse-grain reconfigurable hardware by a 2-Dimensional Array of Processing Elements. Critical parts, called kernels, are mapped on the coarse-grain reconfigurable logic for improving performance. The partitioning method is mainly composed by three steps: the analysis of the input code, the mapping onto the Coarse-Grain Reconfigurable Array and the mapping onto the FPGA. The partitioning flow is implemented by a prototype software framework. Analytical partitioning experiments, using five real-world applications, show that the execution time speedup relative to an all-FPGA solution ranges from 1.4 to 5.0.     

基于Xilinx SoPC的可重构嵌入式计算系统的研究与设计

由于应用种类、实时性以及处理效率等要求,高性能嵌入式计算硬件平台需要具备相当的计算能力以及一定的适应性。为此提出了一种基于Xilinx FPGA的动态可重构的片上系统设计方案。系统采用专用硬件来执行计算密集型任务,运用动态可重构技术来支持硬件处理模块功能的动态配置。研究了Xilinx可编程片上系统上的3种硬件加速方案:CPU协处理器、PLB扩展加速器和MPMC扩展加速器。实验数据表明MPMC加速器性能最优。在Vir-tex5 FPGA器件上实现了可动态重构的MPMC加速器,以128位AES加密、解密两个功能模块为例,从硬件资源占用率、重构延时等角度考察了可重构系统的特点。     

Efficient Time Synchronization Approach for Wireless Communication Systems on GPP-Based Software-Defined Radio Platform

General purpose processer (GPP) based software-defined radio (SDR) platforms provide wireless communication system engineers with maximal architecture flexibility and versatility to construct a wideband wireless communication system. Nevertheless, the lack of hardware real-time timing control makes it difficult to achieve time synchronization between the base station and the terminals. In this paper, a software-based time synchronization (STS) method is proposed to realize the time synchronization of time division multiple access (TDMA) based wireless communication systems. A high precision software clock source is firstly constructed to measure the elapse of processing time. The Round-Trip Delay (RTD) algorithm is then presented to calculate timing advance values and achieve time synchronization. An example TDMA system is implemented on Microsoft Sora platforms to evaluate the performance. Experiments show that the proposed mechanism is effective to enable time synchronization for wideband wireless communication systems on GPP-based SDR platforms.     

Evolution in architectures and programming methodologies of coarse-grained reconfigurable computing

In order to meet the increased computational demands of, e.g., multimedia applications, such as video processing in HDTV, and communication applications, such as baseband processing in telecommunication systems, the architectures of reconfigurable devices have evolved to coarse-grained compositions of functional units or program controlled processors, which are operated in a coordinated manner to improve performance and energy efficiency.In this survey we explore the field of coarse-grained reconfigurable computing on the basis of the hardware aspects of granularity, reconfigurability, and interconnection networks, and discuss the effects of these on energy related properties and scalability. We also consider the computation models that are being adopted for programming of such machines, models that expose the parallelism inherent in the application in order to achieve better performance. We classify the coarse-grained reconfigurable architectures into four categories and present some of the existing examples of these categories. Finally, we identify the emerging trends of introduction of asynchronous techniques at the architectural level and the use of nano-electronics from technological perspective in the reconfigurable computing discipline.     

动态可重配置的星上嵌入式实时计算系统

卫星上由于特殊条件的限制,计算机处理速度满足不了对信号处理的需要,而且不能在有限的硬件规模和功耗的情况下灵活地实现各种计算处理功能。提出了一种基于嵌入式微处理器配合大规模现场可编程门阵列（FPGA）的动态可重配置结构的星上实时计算系统的体系结构设计,可在一块FPGA资源上通过动态重配置实现不同的信号处理功能。实际应用证明,处理速度和性能得到了大幅度提高。     

基于异构可重构计算的AES加密系统研究

随着大数据的发展及加密场景的增多,仅以软件运行的加密方式难以满足加密性能的需求;而使用Verilog/VHDL方式实现的FPGA/ASIC加密系统又存在灵活性较差、维护升级困难等问题。针对上述问题,设计并实现了一种基于异构可重构计算的AES算法加密系统,包含了AES算法ECB、CBC、CTR三种主流模式,每种模式实现了128 bit、192 bit、256 bit三种密钥大小的加密。基于FPGA对模块分别进行了硬件加速,同时基于硬件可重构机制实现了不同模式及不同位宽加密模块的动态切换。通过在Intel Stratix 10上实现并验证该系统,实验结果表明：系统中AES-ECB、AES-CTR、AES-CBC吞吐率分别达到116.43 Gbps、60.34 Gbps、4.32 Gbps,ECB模式相比于Intel Xeon E5-2650 V2 CPU和Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPU分别获得了23.18倍与1.43倍的加速比,整体系统相比纯软件方式的计算加速比达到4.72。     

Mobile satellite reception with a virtual satellite dish based on a reconfigurable multi-processor architecture

Traditionally, mechanically steered dishes or analog phased array beamforming systems have been used for radio frequency receivers, where strong directivity and high performance were much more important than low-cost requirements. Real-time controlled digital phased array beamforming could not be realized due to the high computational requirements and the implementation costs. Today, digital hardware has become powerful enough to perform the massive number of operations required for real-time digital beamforming. With the continuously decreasing price per transistor, high performance signal processing has become available by using multi-processor architectures. More and more applications are using beamforming to improve the spatial utilization of communication channels, resulting in many dedicated digital architectures for specific applications. By using a reconfigurable architecture, a single hardware platform can be used for different applications with different processing needs.In this article, we show how a reconfigurable multi-processor system-on-chip based architecture can be used for phased array processing, including an advanced tracking mechanism to continuously receive signals with a mobile satellite receiver. An adaptive beamformer for DVB-S satellite reception is presented that uses an Extended Constant Modulus Algorithm to track satellites. The receiver consists of 8 antennas and is mapped on three reconfigurable Montium TP processors. With a scenario based on a phased array antenna mounted on the roof of a car, we show that the adaptive steering algorithm is robust in dynamic scenarios and correctly demodulates the received signal.     

并行可配置ECC专用指令协处理器

采用软硬件结合的方法,给出一种基于VLIW的并行可配置椭圆曲线密码体制（ECC）专用指令协处理器架构。该协处理器采用点加、倍点并行调度算法,功能单元微结构采用可重构的思想,具有高度灵活性与较高运算速度,能支持域宽可伸缩的GF（p）与G只2″）有限域上的可变参数Weierstrass曲线,签名认证算法可升级。实验结果表明,GF（p）域上192bit的ECC点乘运算只需0．32ms,比其他同类芯片运算速度提高了116％～350％。     

Parallel application performance on shared high performance reconfigurable computing resources

The use of a network of shared, heterogeneous workstations each harboring a reconfigurable computing (RC) system offers high performance users an inexpensive platform for a wide range of computationally demanding problems. However, effectively using the full potential of these systems can be challenging without the knowledge of the system's performance characteristics. While some performance models exist for shared, heterogeneous workstations, none thus far account for the addition of RC systems. Our analytic performance model includes the effects of the reconfigurable device, application load imbalance, background user load, basic message passing communication, and processor heterogeneity. The methodology proves to be accurate in characterizing these effects for applications running on shared, homogeneous, and heterogeneous HPRC resources. The model error in all cases was found to be less than 5% for application runtimes greater than 30 s, and less than 15% for runtimes less than 30 s.     

SM4国密算法的异构可重构计算系统研究

随着互联网的数据量呈爆炸式增长,以纯软件方式运行的SM4算法速度慢、CPU占用率高,而基于Verilog/VHDL实现的现场可编程门阵列或专用集成电路存在灵活性差、升级维护困难等问题。为了解决上述问题,提出了一种SM4国密算法的异构可重构计算系统的设计方案,采用高层次综合和异构可重构技术,通过优化数据内存分配与传输、优化循环、矢量化内核以及增加计算单元等方式,设计了SM4算法电子密码本模式和计数器模式的定制计算架构,并将该系统部署在FPGA异构平台。实验结果表明：SM4-ECB和SM4-CTR两种主流工作模式的定制计算架构在Intel Stratix 10 GX2800上,吞吐率分别达到109.48 Gbps和63.73 Gbps,是Intel Xeon E5-2650 V2 CPU上对应模式吞吐率的232.63倍和141.62倍。以此核心模块(包含数据输入、加解密、输出)的整体异构可重构计算系统的性能也分别达到了纯软件方式的4.90倍和3.56倍。该方案不仅实现了针对特定模式进行定制加速,而且可以通过硬件重构灵活支持不同的计算模式,兼顾了系统的灵活性和高效性。     

可重构资源管理及硬件任务布局的算法研究

可重构系统具有微处理器的灵活性和接近于ASIC的计算速度,可重构硬件的动态部分重构能力能够实现计算和重构操作的重叠,使系统能够动态地改变运行任务,可重构资源管理和硬件任务布局方法是提高可重构系统性能的关键.提出了基于任务上边界计算最大空闲矩形的算法(TT-KAMER),能够有效地管理系统的空闲可重构资源;在此基础上使用FF和启发式BF算法进行硬件任务的布局.实验表明,算法能够有效地实现在线资源分配与任务布局,获得较高的资源利用率.     

Design and application of an analog fuzzy logic controller

In this paper, we present an analog fuzzy logic hardware implementation and its application to an autonomous mobile system. With a simple structure the fabricated fuzzy controller shows good performance in processing speed and area consumption. Accomplished with 13 reconfigurable rules, a speed of up to 6 MFLIPS has been achieved. To stress the advantages of the new architecture, speed and flexibility, the same control strategy is implemented on the new analog fuzzy controller and on a digital multipurpose microcontroller in software. The results of the two implementations show that the analog approach is not only faster but also flexible enough to compete with digital fuzzy approaches