Gerard Smit

An energy-efficient reconfigurable circuit-switched network-on-chip

Network-on-chip (NoC) is an energy-efficient on-chip communication architecture for multi-tile system-on-chip (SoC) architectures. The SoC architecture, including its run-time software, can replace inflexible ASICs for future ambient systems. These ambient systems have to be flexible as well as energy-efficient. To find an energy-efficient solution for the communication network we analyze three wireless applications. Based on their communication requirements we observe that revisiting of the circuit switching techniques is beneficial. In this paper we propose a new energy-efficient reconfigurable circuit-switched network-on-chip. By physically separating the concurrent data streams we reduce the overall energy consumption. The circuit-switched router has been synthesized and analyzed for its power consumption in 0.13 /spl mu/m technology. A 5-port circuit-switched router has an area of 0.05 mm/sup 2/ and runs at 1075 MHz. The proposed architecture consumes 3.5 times less energy compared to its packet-switched equivalent.

Efficient computation of buffer capacities for multi-rate real-time systems with back-pressure

A key step in the design of multi-rate real-time systems is the determination of buffer capacities. In our multi-processor system, we apply back-pressure as caused by bounded buffers in order to control jitter. This requires the derivation of buffer capacities that both satisfy the temporal constraints as well as constraints on the buffer capacity. Existing exact solutions suffer from the computational complexity associated with the required conversion from a multi-rate dataflow graph to a single-rate dataflow graph. In this paper we present an algorithm, with linear computational complexity, that does not require this conversion and that determines close to minimal buffer capacities. The algorithm is applied to an MP3 play-back application that is mapped on our network based multi-processor system.

A virtual channel network-on-chip for GT and BE traffic

This paper presents an on-chip network for a runtime reconfigurable system-on-chip. The network uses packet-switching with virtual channels. It can provide guaranteed services as well as best effort services. The guaranteed services are based on virtual channel allocation, in contrast to other on-chip networks where guarantees are provided by time-division multiplexing. The network is particularly suitable for systems in which the traffic is dominated by streams. We model the data traffic in the system and simulate the behaviour of the network with this model. The results show that the network is capable of handling the system traffic and can provide the required guarantees

Towards Software Defined Radios Using Coarse-Grained Reconfigurable Hardware

Mobile wireless terminals tend to become multimode wireless communication devices. Furthermore, these devices become adaptive. Heterogeneous reconfigurable hardware provides the flexibility, performance, and efficiency to enable the implementation of these devices. The implementation of a wideband code division multiple access and an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing receiver using the same coarse-grained reconfigurable MONTIUM tile processor is discussed. Besides the baseband processing part of the receiver, the same reconfigurable processor has also been used to implement Viterbi and Turbo channel decoders.

Modelling run-time arbitration by latency-rate servers in dataflow graphs

In order to obtain a cost-efficient solution, tasks share resources in a Multi-Processor System-on-Chip. In our architecture, shared resources are run-time scheduled. We show how the effects of Latency-Rate servers, which is a class of run-time schedulers, can be included in a dataflow model. The resulting dataflow model, which can have an arbitrary topology, enables us to provide guarantees on the temporal behaviour of the implementation. Traditionally, the end-to-end behaviour of multiple Latency-Rate servers has been analysed with Latency-Rate analysis, which is a Network Calculus. This paper bridges a gap between Network Calculi and dataflow analysis techniques, since we show that a class of run-time schedulers can now be included in dataflow models, or, from a Network Calculus perspective, that restrictions on the topology of graphs that include run-time scheduling can be removed.

Buffer Capacity Computation for Throughput Constrained Streaming Applications with Data-Dependent Inter-Task Communication

Streaming applications are often implemented as task graphs, in which data is communicated from task to task over buffers. Currently, techniques exist to compute buffer capacities that guarantee satisfaction of the throughput constraint if the amount of data produced and consumed by the tasks is known at design-time. However, applications such as audio and video decoders have tasks that produce and consume an amount of data that depends on the decoded stream. This paper introduces a dataflow model that allows for data-dependent communication, together with an algorithm that computes buffer capacities that guarantee satisfaction of a throughput constraint. The applicability of this algorithm is demonstrated by computing buffer capacities for an H.263 video decoder.

A graph covering algorithm for a coarse grain reconfigurable system

The availability of high-level design entry tooling is crucial for the viability of any reconfigurable SoC architecture. This paper presents a graph covering algorithm. The graph covering is done in two steps: template generation and template selection. The objective of template generation step is to extract functional equivalent structures, i.e. templates, from a control data flow graph. By inspecting the graph, the algorithm generates all the possible templates and the corresponding matches. Using unique serial numbers and circle numbers, the algorithm can find all distinct templates with multiple outputs. The template selection algorithm shows how this information can be used in compilers for reconfigurable systems. The objective of the template selection algorithm is to find an efficient cover for an application graph with a minimal number of distinct templates and minimal number of matches.

Dynamic Reconfiguration in Mobile Systems

Dynamically reconfigurable systems have the potential of realising efficient systems as well as providing adaptability to changing system requirements. Such systems are suitable for future mobile multimedia systems that have limited battery resources, must handle diverse data types, and must operate in dynamic application and communication environments. We propose an approach in which reconfiguration is applied dynamically at various levels of a mobile system, whereas traditionally, reconfigurable systems mainly focus at the gate level only. The research performed in the CHAMELEON project 1 aims at designing such a heterogeneous reconfigurable mobile system. The two main motivations for the system are 1) to have an energy-efficient system, while 2) achieving an adequate Quality of Service for applications.

Efficient Computation of Buffer Capacities for Cyclo-Static Real-Time Systems with Back-Pressure

This paper describes a conservative approximation algorithm that derives close to minimal buffer capacities for an application described as a cyclo-static dataflow graph. The resulting buffer capacities satisfy constraints on the maximum buffer capacities and end-to-end throughput and latency constraints. Furthermore we show that the effects of run-time arbitration can be included in the response times of dataflow actors. We show that modelling an MP3 playback application as a cyclo-static dataflow graph instead of a multi-rate dataflow graph results in buffer capacities that are reduced up to 39%. Furthermore, the algorithm is applied to a real-life car-radio application, in which two independent streams are processed

An efficient multi-resolution spectrum sensing method for cognitive radio

This paper presents a novel energy based multi-resolution spectrum sensing technique. By applying an efficient flexible FFT, the proposed method can focus on a small part of the interested bands with finer resolutions at low computational cost. The hardware implementation of the algorithm has been considered. An experiment on a reconfigurable platform shows that the algorithm is not only computationally efficient but can also easy to be reconfigured easily and fast.