The Kiel Esterel Processor - A Semi-Custom, Configurable Reactive Processor

The synchronous language Esterel is an established language for developing reactive systems. It gives an abstract, well-defined and executable description of the application, and can be synthesized into hardware and software. Typically, an Esterel program is first translated into other, lower-level languages (such as VHDL or C), and then compiled further. However, there is also the alternative of executing Esterel-like instructions directly. For example, in the REFLIX and RePIC projects, Roop et al. have augmented traditional processors with custom hardware to execute Esterel instructions. This patch strategy is a convenient approach, but has some shortages. We present the Kiel Esterel Processor (KEP), a semi-custom, configurable reactive processor for the direct execution of Esterel programs. It consists of a reactive core and scalable peripheral elements. KEP supports standard Esterel statements directly, except (so far) for the concurrency operator. Valued signals and counter functions in Esterel statements are supported by KEP. Due to its control path and its cooperation with elements, KEP obeys exact Esterel (preemption and priority) rules, including for example abort/weak abort (nests)

The Kiel Esterel processor: a multi-threaded reactive processor

Many embedded systems belong to the class of reactive systems, which continuously react to inputs from the environment by generating corresponding outputs. The programming of reactive systems typically requires the use of non-standard control flow constructs, such as concurrency or exception handling. Most programming languages do not support these constructs at all, or their use induces non-deterministic program behavior. To address these difficulties, the synchronous language Esterel has been developed to express reactive control flow patterns in a concise manner, with a clear semantics that imposes deterministic program behavior under all circumstances. There are different options to synthesize an Esterel program into a concrete system, e.g., software, hardware, and HW/SW co-design implementations. However, these classical synthesis approaches suffer from the limitations of traditional processors, with their instruction set architectures geared towards the sequential von-Neumann execution model, or they are very inflexible if HW synthesis is involved. Recently, another alternative for synthesizing Esterel has emerged, the reactive processing approach. Here the Esterel program is running on a processor that has been developed specifically for reactive systems. However, the main challenge when designing a reactive architecture is the handling of control. This thesis presents the Kiel Esterel Processor (KEP). In the KEP, the multi-threaded reactive architecture is responsible for managing the control flow of all threads. The KEP Instruction Set Architecture is complete in that it allows a direct mapping of all Esterel statements onto KEP assembler. It supports Esterel’s concurrency operator || in a very precise, direct and efficient way. It also supports full Esterel preemptions, i.e., the delayed and immediate strong/weak abortion and suspension. All other Esterel kernel statements, e.g., the Esterel exception, delay, and signal emission, etc., are also implemented directly and semantically accurate by the KEP. As the experimental comparison with a 32-bit commercial RISC processor indicates, the KEP has advantages in terms of memory use, execution speed, and energy consumption. Another advantage is the predictability of its timing behavior at the program level