Towards an Automated Design of Application-specific Reconfigurable Logic

Abstract

Reconfigurable logic is known to have the potential to provide better
solutions than direct ASIC implementations or processors in some situations.
A necessary prerequisite for area advantages compared to ASICs or a better
energy efficiency than processors is an application specific design of the
reconfigurable unit.
Adapting it to the specific requirements of an application helps to compensate
for the area and speed penalty introduced by reconfigurability.
The data paths of reconfigurable units are best suited for data flow oriented
tasks, but for many applications, both control flow and data flow must be
handled, so a integration of the reconfigurable unit into a processor
environment is an appropriate choice.
By analysing the existing design flow and integration possibilities for
reconfigurable units, a basis for discussing possible automation schemes
and a standardised interface is defined.
Possible future research could investigate an automated design support for the
building blocks of reconfigurable units and the definition of a standard
processor interface for some classes of reconfigurable units.