1,169 research outputs found
Partial Reconfiguration in the Field of Logic Controllers Design
The paper presents method for logic controllers multi context implementation by means of partial reconfiguration. The UML state machine diagram specifies the behaviour of the logic controller. Multi context functionality is specified at the specification level as variants of the composite state. Each composite state, both orthogonal or compositional, describes specific functional requirement of the control process. The functional decomposition provided by composite states is required by the dynamic partial reconfiguration flow. The state machines specified by UML state machine diagrams are transformed into hierarchical configurable Petri nets (HCfgPN). HCfgPN are a Petri nets variant with the direct support of the exceptions handling mechanism. The paper presents placesoriented method for HCfgPN description in Verilog language. In the paper proposed methodology was illustrated by means of simple industrial control process
Criticality Aware Soft Error Mitigation in the Configuration Memory of SRAM based FPGA
Efficient low complexity error correcting code(ECC) is considered as an
effective technique for mitigation of multi-bit upset (MBU) in the
configuration memory(CM)of static random access memory (SRAM) based Field
Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices. Traditional multi-bit ECCs have large
overhead and complex decoding circuit to correct adjacent multibit error. In
this work, we propose a simple multi-bit ECC which uses Secure Hash Algorithm
for error detection and parity based two dimensional Erasure Product Code for
error correction. Present error mitigation techniques perform error correction
in the CM without considering the criticality or the execution period of the
tasks allocated in different portion of CM. In most of the cases, error
correction is not done in the right instant, which sometimes either suspends
normal system operation or wastes hardware resources for less critical tasks.
In this paper,we advocate for a dynamic priority-based hardware scheduling
algorithm which chooses the tasks for error correction based on their area,
execution period and criticality. The proposed method has been validated in
terms of overhead due to redundant bits, error correction time and system
reliabilityComment: 6 pages, 8 figures, conferenc
Hardware Acceleration in Genode OS Using Dynamic Partial Reconfiguration
Algorithms with operations on large regular data structures such as image processing can be highly accelerated when executed as hardware tasks in an FPGA fabric. The Dynamic Partial Reconfiguration (DPR) feature of new SRAM-based FPGA families allows a dynamic swapping and replacement of hardware tasks during runtime. Particularly embedded systems with processing chains that change over time or that are too large to be implemented in an FPGA fabric in parallel, benefit from DPR. In this paper we present a complete framework for hardware acceleration using DPR in the microkernel based Genode OS. This makes the DPR feature available not only for the high-performance computing field, but also for safety-critical applications. The new framework is evaluated for an exemplary imaging application running on a Xilinx Zynq-7000 SoC
FPGA dynamic and partial reconfiguration : a survey of architectures, methods, and applications
Dynamic and partial reconfiguration are key differentiating capabilities of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). While they have been studied extensively in academic literature, they find limited use in deployed systems. We review FPGA reconfiguration, looking at architectures built for the purpose, and the properties of modern commercial architectures. We then investigate design flows, and identify the key challenges in making reconfigurable FPGA systems easier to design. Finally, we look at applications where reconfiguration has found use, as well as proposing new areas where this capability places FPGAs in a unique position for adoption
A Modular Approach to Adaptive Reactive Streaming Systems
The latest generations of FPGA devices offer large resource counts that provide the headroom to implement large-scale and complex systems. However, there are increasing challenges for the designer, not just because of pure size and complexity, but also in harnessing effectively the flexibility and programmability of the FPGA. A central issue is the need to integrate modules from diverse sources to promote modular design and reuse. Further, the capability to perform dynamic partial reconfiguration (DPR) of FPGA devices means that implemented systems can be made reconfigurable, allowing components to be changed during operation. However, use of DPR typically requires low-level planning of the system implementation, adding to the design challenge. This dissertation presents ReShape: a high-level approach for designing systems by interconnecting modules, which gives a ‘plug and play’ look and feel to the designer, is supported by tools that carry out implementation and verification functions, and is carried through to support system reconfiguration during operation. The emphasis is on the inter-module connections and abstracting the communication patterns that are typical between modules – for example, the streaming of data that is common in many FPGA-based systems, or the reading and writing of data to and from memory modules. ShapeUp is also presented as the static precursor to ReShape. In both, the details of wiring and signaling are hidden from view, via metadata associated with individual modules. ReShape allows system reconfiguration at the module level, by supporting type checking of replacement modules and by managing the overall system implementation, via metadata associated with its FPGA floorplan. The methodology and tools have been implemented in a prototype for a broad domain-specific setting – networking systems – and have been validated on real telecommunications design projects
Using embedded hardware monitor cores in critical computer systems
The integration of FPGA devices in many different architectures and services
makes monitoring and real time detection of errors an important concern in FPGA
system design. A monitor is a tool, or a set of tools, that facilitate analytic
measurements in observing a given system. The goal of these observations is
usually the performance analysis and optimisation, or the surveillance of the system.
However, System-on-Chip (SoC) based designs leave few points to attach external
tools such as logic analysers. Thus, an embedded error detection core that allows
observation of critical system nodes (such as processor cores and buses) should
enforce the operation of the FPGA-based system, in order to prevent system
failures. The core should not interfere with system performance and must ensure
timely detection of errors.
This thesis is an investigation onto how a robust hardware-monitoring module
can be efficiently integrated in a target PCI board (with FPGA-based application processing
features) which is part of a critical computing system. [Continues.
An FPGA-based network system with service-uninterrupted remote functional update
The recent emergence of 5G network enables mass wireless sensors deployment for internet-of-things (IoT) applications. In many cases, IoT sensors in monitoring and data collection applications are required to operate continuously and active at all time (24/7) to ensure all data are sampled without loss. Field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based systems exhibit a balanced processing throughput and datapath flexibility. Specifically, datapath flexibility is acquired from the FPGA-based system architecture that supports dynamic partial reconfiguration feature. However, device functional update can cause interruption to the application servicing, especially in an FPGA-based system. This paper presents a standalone FPGA-based system architecture that allows remote functional update without causing service interruption by adopting a redundancy mechanism in the application datapath. By utilizing dynamic partial reconfiguration, only the updating datapath is temporarily inactive while the rest of the circuitry, including the redundant datapath, remain active. Hence, there is no service interruption and downtime when a remote functional update takes place due to the existence of redundant application datapath, which is critical for network and communication systems. The proposed architecture has a significant impact for application in FPGA-based systems that have little or no tolerance in service interruption
Virtualisation of FPGA-Resources for Concurrent User Designs Employing Partial Dynamic Reconfiguration
Reconfigurable hardware in a cloud environment is a power efficient way to increase the processing power of future data centers beyond today\'s maximum.
This work enhances an existing framework to support concurrent users on a virtualized reconfigurable FPGA resource. The FPGAs are used to provide a flexible, fast and very efficient platform for the user who has access through a simple cloud based interface.
A fast partial reconfiguration is achieved through the ICAP combined with a PCIe connection and a combination of custom and TCL scripts to control the tool flow.
This allows for a reconfiguration of a user space on a FPGA in a few milliseconds while providing a simple single-action interface to the user
A general purpose HyperTransport-based Application Accelerator Framework
HyperTransport provides a flexible, low latency and high bandwidth interconnection between processors and also between processors and peripheral omponents. Therefore, the interconnection is no longer a performance bottleneck when integrating application specific accelerators in modern computing systems. Current FPGAs providing huge computational power and permit the acceleration of compute-intensive kernels. We therefore present a general purpose architecture based on HyperTransport and modern FPGAs to accelerate time-consuming computations. Further, we present a prototypical implementation of our architecture. Here we used an AMD Opteron-based system with the HTX Board [6] to demonstrate that common applications can benefit from available hardware accelerators. A cryptographic example showed that the encryption of files, larger then 50 kByte, can be successfully accelerated
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