Research

Katherine Compton
Assistant Professor
University of Wisconsin-Madison
http://www.kmorrow.wisc.edu


Reconfigurable computing achieves much higher performance than software, while maintaining a higher level of flexibility than hardware.  Reconfigurable devices, including field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), contain an array of computational elements whose functionality is determined through multiple programmable configuration bits.  These elements, sometimes known as logic blocks, are connected using a set of routing resources that are also programmable.  In this way, custom digital circuits can be mapped to the reconfigurable hardware by computing the logic functions of the circuit within the logic blocks, and using the configurable routing to connect the blocks together to form the necessary circuit.  Later in either the same or a different application, the hardware can be re-programmed to implement an entirely different circuit.

The projects listed below fall under the heading of reconfigurable architecture or reconfigurable computing research.  Many applications for this research are envisaged, among them:

Multi-Logic FPGAs

Transistors are becoming smaller and faster, which is leading some in the FPGA community to consider logic as "free", and the overhead as centering in the routing structures.  By including a variety of more complex logic structures, we plan to reduce the amount of routing required in FPGAs to achieve more area-, performance-, and power-efficient FPGA designs for embedded or stand-alone use.

Heterogeneous FPGA Tools

Most FPGA tools, such as technology mapping and place and route tools, focus on LUT-based homogenous FPGAs.  However, there is increasing research in embedded custom resources (such as multipliers and RAM blocks) as well as non-LUT fabrics.  This work will concentrate on adapting the VPR tool from the University of Toronto to handle heterogeneous architectures.

OS Support for Reconfigurable Computing

Research in the reconfigurable computing area generally assumes that only a single thread of a single application will be accessing the reconfigurable hardware at any given time.  However, as reconfigurable computing becomes mainstream, this assumption will not remain accurate.  The operating system and drivers for the reconfigurable hardware must negotiate the use of the hardware across different threads or tasks.  Configuration overhead management techniques must also be adapted for multi-tasking situations.  Finally, dynamic program partitioning will be investigated.  This technique would allow the operating system to choose at runtime if a section of application code should be run on the reconfigurable hardware or executed on the host processor, depending on the availability of each.

Embedded Design Partitioning For Domain-Specific SoC Generation

Previous efforts in partitioning for reconfigurable computing have focused on dividing applications into sections which usually perform well on a processor, and sections which usually perform well on reconfigurable logic.  However, if the resources on a domain-specific system-on-a-chip (SoC) are to be automatically generated, this opens a new possibility.  The resources, both processor and reconfigurable logic, can be tailored to specific applications.  The best partitioning will depend on the resources chosen for the design, while the best resources for the design will depend on the application partitioning.  Therefore, the resource choice and application partitioning are inter-dependent operations.  This research will involve examining the relation of resource choice and application partitioning for automatic domain-specific SoC design.