236 research outputs found
Design and Implementation of an RNS-based 2D DWT Processor
No abstract availabl
Methodology and optimizing of multiple frame format buffering within FPGA H.264/AVC decoder with FRExt.
Digital representation of video data is an inherently resource demanding problem that continues to necessitate the development and refinement of coding methods. The H.264/AVC standard, along with its recent Fidelity Range Extensions amendment (FRExt), is quickly being adopted as the standard codec for broadcast and distribution of high definition video. The FRExt amendment, while not necessarily affecting the overall decoder architecture, presents an added complexity of providing efficient memory management for buffering intermediate frames of various pixel color samplings and depths. This thesis evaluated the role of designing the frame buffer of a hardware video decoder, with integrated support for the H.264/AVC codec plus FRExt. With focus on organizing external memory data access, the frame buffer was designed to provide intermediate data storage for the decoder, while using an efficient store and load scheme that takes into consideration each frame pixel format of the video data. VHDL was used to model the frame buffer. Exploitation of reconfigurability and post-synthesis FPGA simulations were used to evaluate behavior, scalability and power consumption, while providing an analysis of approaches to adding FRExt to the memory management. Real-time buffer performance was achieved for two common frame formats at 1080 HD resolution; and an innovative pipeline design provides dynamic switching of formats between video sequences. As an additional consequence of verifying the model, a preexisting Baseline H.264/AVC decoder testbench was augmented to support testing of multiple frame formats
High-speed dynamic partial reconfiguration for field programmable gate arrays
With dynamically and partially reconfigurable designs, it is necessary that the speed of the reconfiguration be accomplished in a time that is sufficiently small such that the operation of reconfiguration is not the limiting factor in the process. Therefore, the communication between the source of configuration and the configurable unit must be made as fast as possible. The aim of this work is to use an embedded controller internal to the FPGA to control the reconfiguration process and obtain the maximum speed at which reconfiguration can occur, with current FPGA technology. The use of Direct Memory Access (DMA) driven operations instead of the current arbitrated bus architectures yielded a 30% increase in the speed of reconfiguration compared to other methods such as OPB_HWICAP and PLB_HWICAP [1]. The use of interrupt driven partial reconfiguration was also introduced, allowing the processor to switch to other tasks during the reconfiguration operation. All of these contributions lead to significant performance improvements over current partial reconfiguration subsystems. The configuration controller was tested using four partially reconfigurable system implementations: (i) one targeting the Hard IP PowerPC405 on Virtex-4, (ii) a second targeting the Soft IP MicroBlaze on Virtex-5, (iii) a third targeting the Hard IP PowerPC440 on Virtex-5, and (iv) a fourth system targets the Hard IP PowerPC440 on Virtex-5 capable of adaptive feedback. The adaptive feedback Virtex-5 system can use internal voltage and temperature measurements from the Xilinx System Monitor IP to dynamically increase or decrease the speed of reconfiguration and/or change other reconfigurable aspects of the system to better match the environment
Embedded electronic systems driven by run-time reconfigurable hardware
Abstract
This doctoral thesis addresses the design of embedded electronic systems based on run-time reconfigurable hardware technology –available through SRAM-based FPGA/SoC devices– aimed at contributing to enhance the life quality of the human beings. This work does research on the conception of the system architecture and the reconfiguration engine that provides to the FPGA the capability of dynamic partial reconfiguration in order to synthesize, by means of hardware/software co-design, a given application partitioned in processing tasks which are multiplexed in time and space, optimizing thus its physical implementation –silicon area, processing time, complexity, flexibility, functional density, cost and power consumption– in comparison with other alternatives based on static hardware (MCU, DSP, GPU, ASSP, ASIC, etc.). The design flow of such technology is evaluated through the prototyping of several engineering applications (control systems, mathematical coprocessors, complex image processors, etc.), showing a high enough level of maturity for its exploitation in the industry.Resumen
Esta tesis doctoral abarca el diseño de sistemas electrĂłnicos embebidos basados en tecnologĂa hardware dinámicamente reconfigurable –disponible a travĂ©s de dispositivos lĂłgicos programables SRAM FPGA/SoC– que contribuyan a la mejora de la calidad de vida de la sociedad. Se investiga la arquitectura del sistema y del motor de reconfiguraciĂłn que proporcione a la FPGA la capacidad de reconfiguraciĂłn dinámica parcial de sus recursos programables, con objeto de sintetizar, mediante codiseño hardware/software, una determinada aplicaciĂłn particionada en tareas multiplexadas en tiempo y en espacio, optimizando asĂ su implementaciĂłn fĂsica –área de silicio, tiempo de procesado, complejidad, flexibilidad, densidad funcional, coste y potencia disipada– comparada con otras alternativas basadas en hardware estático (MCU, DSP, GPU, ASSP, ASIC, etc.). Se evalĂşa el flujo de diseño de dicha tecnologĂa a travĂ©s del prototipado de varias aplicaciones de ingenierĂa (sistemas de control, coprocesadores aritmĂ©ticos, procesadores de imagen, etc.), evidenciando un nivel de madurez viable ya para su explotaciĂłn en la industria.Resum
Aquesta tesi doctoral estĂ orientada al disseny de sistemes electrònics empotrats basats en tecnologia hardware dinĂ micament reconfigurable –disponible mitjançant dispositius lògics programables SRAM FPGA/SoC– que contribueixin a la millora de la qualitat de vida de la societat. S’investiga l’arquitectura del sistema i del motor de reconfiguraciĂł que proporcioni a la FPGA la capacitat de reconfiguraciĂł dinĂ mica parcial dels seus recursos programables, amb l’objectiu de sintetitzar, mitjançant codisseny hardware/software, una determinada aplicaciĂł particionada en tasques multiplexades en temps i en espai, optimizant aixĂ la seva implementaciĂł fĂsica –à rea de silici, temps de processat, complexitat, flexibilitat, densitat funcional, cost i potència dissipada– comparada amb altres alternatives basades en hardware estĂ tic (MCU, DSP, GPU, ASSP, ASIC, etc.). S’evalĂşa el fluxe de disseny d’aquesta tecnologia a travĂ©s del prototipat de varies aplicacions d’enginyeria (sistemes de control, coprocessadors aritmètics, processadors d’imatge, etc.), demostrant un nivell de maduresa viable ja per a la seva explotaciĂł a la indĂşstria
FPGA Acceleration of Communication-Bound Streaming Applications: Architecture Modeling and a 3D Image Compositing Case Study
Reconfigurable computers usually provide a limited
number of different memory resources, such as host
memory, external memory, and on-chip memory with different
capacities and communication characteristics. A key
challenge for achieving high-performance with reconfigurable
accelerators is the efficient utilization of the available memory
resources. A detailed knowledge of the memories' parameters
is key for generating an optimized communication layout. In this paper, we discuss a benchmarking environment
for generating such a characterization. The environment is
built on IMORC, our architectural template and on-chip
network for creating reconfigurable accelerators. We provide
a characterization of the memory resources available on the
XtremeData XD1000 reconfigurable computer. Based on this
data, we present as a case study the implementation of a 3D
image compositing accelerator that is able to double the frame rate
of a parallel renderer
From FPGA to ASIC: A RISC-V processor experience
This work document a correct design flow using these tools in the Lagarto RISC- V Processor and the RTL design considerations that must be taken into account, to move from a design for FPGA to design for ASIC
DRAM Bender: An Extensible and Versatile FPGA-based Infrastructure to Easily Test State-of-the-art DRAM Chips
To understand and improve DRAM performance, reliability, security and energy
efficiency, prior works study characteristics of commodity DRAM chips.
Unfortunately, state-of-the-art open source infrastructures capable of
conducting such studies are obsolete, poorly supported, or difficult to use, or
their inflexibility limit the types of studies they can conduct.
We propose DRAM Bender, a new FPGA-based infrastructure that enables
experimental studies on state-of-the-art DRAM chips. DRAM Bender offers three
key features at the same time. First, DRAM Bender enables directly interfacing
with a DRAM chip through its low-level interface. This allows users to issue
DRAM commands in arbitrary order and with finer-grained time intervals compared
to other open source infrastructures. Second, DRAM Bender exposes easy-to-use
C++ and Python programming interfaces, allowing users to quickly and easily
develop different types of DRAM experiments. Third, DRAM Bender is easily
extensible. The modular design of DRAM Bender allows extending it to (i)
support existing and emerging DRAM interfaces, and (ii) run on new commercial
or custom FPGA boards with little effort.
To demonstrate that DRAM Bender is a versatile infrastructure, we conduct
three case studies, two of which lead to new observations about the DRAM
RowHammer vulnerability. In particular, we show that data patterns supported by
DRAM Bender uncovers a larger set of bit-flips on a victim row compared to the
data patterns commonly used by prior work. We demonstrate the extensibility of
DRAM Bender by implementing it on five different FPGAs with DDR4 and DDR3
support. DRAM Bender is freely and openly available at
https://github.com/CMU-SAFARI/DRAM-Bender.Comment: To appear in TCAD 202
FlexWAFE - eine Architektur fĂĽr rekonfigurierbare-Bildverarbeitungssysteme
Recently there has been an increase in demand for high-resolution digital media content in both cinema and television industries. Currently existing equipment does not meet the requirements, or is too costly. New hardware systems and new programming techniques are needed in order to meet the high-resolution, high-quality, image requirements and reduce costs. The industry seeks a flexible architecture capable of running multiple applications on top of standard off-the-shelf components, with reduced development time.
Until now, standard practice has been to develop specialized architectures and systems that target a single application. This has little flexibility and leads to high developments costs, every new application is designed almost from scratch.
Our focus was to develop an architecture that is suited to image stream processing and has the flexibility to run multiple applications using the same FPGA-based hardware platform. The novelty in our approach is that we reconfigure parts of the architecture at run-time, but without incurring in the time and added constraints penalty of FPGA-partial-reconfiguration techniques. The architecture uses a hierarchical control structure that is well suited to parallel processing, and allows single cycle latency reconfiguration of parts of the processing pipeline. This is achieved using relatively little resources for the distributed control structures.
To test the developed architecture a complex film-grain noise reduction algorithm was implemented on an off-the-shelf hardware platform developed by Thomson-Grass Valley. The system meet all the requirements and had very little load on the hierarchical control structures, there is growth headroom for much complexer control demands.
The architecture has been ported to other hardware platforms, and other applications have been implemented as well. The run-time reconfigurability has proven to be a key factor in the success of the FlexWAFE.Kürzlich gab es eine Zunahme der Nachfrage nach hochauflösenden digitalen Medieninhalten in den Kino- und Fernsehenindustrien. Derzeit vorhandene Systeme entsprechen nicht den Anforderungen, oder sind zu teuer. Neue Hardware-Systeme und neuer Programmiertechniken sind erforderlich, um den hochauflösenden, hochwertigen, Bildanforderungen zu genügen und Kosten zu verringern. Die Industrie sucht eine flexible Architektur zur Ausführung mehrerer Anwendungen auf Standard-Komponenten, mit reduzierten Entwicklungszeiten.
Bis jetzt ist gängige Praxis, spezialisierten Architektur und Systeme zu entwickeln, die eine einzelne Anwendung zielen. Dieses hat wenig Flexibilität und führt zu hohe Entwicklungskosten, jede neue Anwendung ist fast von Grund auf neu konzipiert.
Unser Fokus war es, eine für Bild Verarbeitung geeignet Architektur zu entwickeln dass die Flexibilität hat mehrere Anwendungen an dieselbe FPGA-basierte Hardware-Plattform zu laufen. Die Neuheit in unserem Ansatz ist, dass wir Teile der Architektur zur Laufzeit rekonfigurieren, aber, ohne das Zeit und constraints strafe von FPGA Partielle-Rekonfiguration-Techniken. Die Architektur verwendet eine hierarchische Kontrollstruktur, die zur parallel Verarbeitung gut geeignet ist, und Single-Cycle-Latenz Rekonfiguration von Teilen der Verarbeitungs-Pipeline ermöglicht. Dieses wird unter Verwendung relativ weniger Ressourcen für die verteiltes Steuerung Strukturen erzielt.
Um das entwickelte Architektur zu testen ein komplexer Film-Korn-RauschunterdrĂĽckung Algorithmus wurde auf einer von Thomson-Grass Valley entwickelt standard Hardware-Plattform umgesetzt. Das System erfĂĽllt alle Anforderungen und hatte sehr wenig Last auf den hierarchischen Kontrollstrukturen, es gibt viel Wachstum Spielraum fĂĽr viel kompliziertere Steuerunganforderungen.
Die Architektur ist zu anderen Hardwareplattformen portiert worden, und andere Anwendungen wurden ebenfalls implementiert. Der Laufzeitreconfigurability ist ein SchlĂĽsselfaktor im Erfolg des FlexWAFE gewesen
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