Abstract
This paper presents a novel methodology for instruction set customization of RISPs (Reconfigurable Instruction Set Processors) using morphable structures. A morphable structure consists of a group of hardware operators chained together to implement a restricted set of custom instructions. These structures are implemented on the reconfigurable fabric, and the operators are enabled/disabled on demand. The utilization of a predefined set of morphable structures for instruction set customization dispenses the need for hardware synthesis in design exploration, and avoids run-time reconfiguration while minimizing the reconfigurable area. We will describe the two stages of the methodology for constructing the morphable structures, namely template generation and identification of a maximal unique pattern set from the templates. Our preliminary studies show that 23 predefined morphable structures can sufficiently cater to any application in a set of eight MiBench benchmark applications. In addition, to achieve near-optimal performance, the maximum required number of morphable structures for an application is only 8.
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Lam, SK., Yun, D., Srikanthan, T. (2005). Morphable Structures for Reconfigurable Instruction Set Processors. In: Srikanthan, T., Xue, J., Chang, CH. (eds) Advances in Computer Systems Architecture. ACSAC 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3740. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11572961_36
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11572961_36
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