Configuration prefetch for single context reconfigurable coprocessors

ABSTRACT

Current reconfigurable systems suffer from a significant overhead due to the time it takes to reconfigure their hardware. In order to deal with this overhead, and increase the power of reconfigurable systems, it is important to develop hardware and software systems to reduce or eliminate this delay. In this paper we propose one technique for significantly reducing the reconfiguration latency: the prefetching of configurations. By loading a configuration into the reconfigurable logic in advance of when it is needed, we can overlap the reconfiguration with useful computation. We demonstrate the power of this technique, and propose an algorithm for automatically adding prefetch operations into reconfigurable applications. This results in a significant decrease in the reconfiguration overhead for these applications.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  B. Hardware
  B.7 INTEGRATED CIRCUITS

Additional Classification:
  B. Hardware
  B.8 Performance and Reliability

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design, Experimentation, Performance