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A Reconfigurable System featuring Dynamically Extensible Embedded Microprocessor, FPGA and Customisable I/O

A system-chip targeting image and voice processing and recognition application domains is implemented as a representative of the potential of using programmable logic in system design. It features an embedded reconfigurable processor built by joining a configurable and extensible processor core and a SRAM-based embedded FPGA. Application-specific bus-mapped coprocessors and flexible I/O peripherals and interfaces can also be added and dynamically modified by reconfiguring the embedded FPGA. The architecture of the system is discussed as well as the design flows for pre- and post-silicon design and customisation. The silicon area required by the system is 20mm2 in a 0.18um CMOS technology. The embedded FPGA accounts for about 40% of the system area.

In this paper we present a pragmatic approach to introduce flexibility in system-chip design and exploit embedded programmable silicon fabrics to enhance system performances. In particular, enabling application-specific configurations to adapt the underlying hardware architecture to time-varying application demands can improve execution speed and reduce power consumption compared to a general-purpose programmable solution. In the proposed system the embedded programmable logic allows static or dynamic configuration of the instruction set of an embedded microprocessor, the creation of bus-mapped application-specific hardware coprocessors and accelerators, and the customisation of the system I/O. The latter feature allows the device to potentially connect to any external unit/sensor given that its communication protocol can be mapped to the on-chip programmable logic. Also, some computations can be performed on-the-fly when data is captured.

The proposed system has been built using a set of state-of-the-art IP cores and system design methodology. In particular, a configurable and extensible processor (1) with associated tools, and an embedded FPGA (2) were used. The resulting system has been developed to target image and voice processing and recognition application domains. Design flows for system exploration and implementation are also introduced.

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