28,844 research outputs found
Analysis on the Possibility of RISC-V Adoption
As the interface between hardware and software, Instruction Set Architectures (ISAs) play a key role in the operation of computers. While both hardware and software have continued to evolve rapidly over time, ISAs have undergone minimal change. Since its release in 2010, RISC-V has begun to erode the industry aversion to ISA innovation. Established on the principals of the Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC), and as an open source ISA, RISC-V offers many benefits over popular ISAs like Intelâs x86 and Arm Holdingâs Advanced RISC Machine (ARM). In this literature review I evaluate the literature discussing: What makes changing Instruction Set Architectures difficultWhy might the industry choose to implement RISC-V When researching this topic I visited the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), INSPEC (Engineering Village), and ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) Digital Library databases. I used the search terms, âRISC-Vâ, âInstruction Set Architectureâ, âRISC-Vâ AND âx86â, and âRISC-Vâ AND âInstruction Set Architectureâ. This literature review evaluates 10 papers on implementation of RISC-V. As this paper was intended to cover recent developments in the field, publication dates were limited to from 2015 to present
SL: a "quick and dirty" but working intermediate language for SVP systems
The CSA group at the University of Amsterdam has developed SVP, a framework
to manage and program many-core and hardware multithreaded processors. In this
article, we introduce the intermediate language SL, a common vehicle to program
SVP platforms. SL is designed as an extension to the standard C language (ISO
C99/C11). It includes primitive constructs to bulk create threads, bulk
synchronize on termination of threads, and communicate using word-sized
dataflow channels between threads. It is intended for use as target language
for higher-level parallelizing compilers. SL is a research vehicle; as of this
writing, it is the only interface language to program a main SVP platform, the
new Microgrid chip architecture. This article provides an overview of the
language, to complement a detailed specification available separately.Comment: 22 pages, 3 figures, 18 listings, 1 tabl
Issues of Architectural Description Languages for Handling Dynamic Reconfiguration
Dynamic reconfiguration is the action of modifying a software system at
runtime. Several works have been using architectural specification as the basis
for dynamic reconfiguration. Indeed ADLs (architecture description languages)
let architects describe the elements that could be reconfigured as well as the
set of constraints to which the system must conform during reconfiguration. In
this work, we investigate the ADL literature in order to illustrate how
reconfiguration is supported in four well-known ADLs: pi-ADL, ACME, C2SADL and
Dynamic Wright. From this review, we conclude that none of these ADLs: (i)
addresses the issue of consistently reconfiguring both instances and types;
(ii) takes into account the behaviour of architectural elements during
reconfiguration; and (iii) provides support for assessing reconfiguration,
e.g., verifying the transition against properties.Comment: 6\`eme Conf\'erence francophone sur les architectures logicielles
(CAL'2012), Montpellier : France (2012
Packet Transactions: High-level Programming for Line-Rate Switches
Many algorithms for congestion control, scheduling, network measurement,
active queue management, security, and load balancing require custom processing
of packets as they traverse the data plane of a network switch. To run at line
rate, these data-plane algorithms must be in hardware. With today's switch
hardware, algorithms cannot be changed, nor new algorithms installed, after a
switch has been built.
This paper shows how to program data-plane algorithms in a high-level
language and compile those programs into low-level microcode that can run on
emerging programmable line-rate switching chipsets. The key challenge is that
these algorithms create and modify algorithmic state. The key idea to achieve
line-rate programmability for stateful algorithms is the notion of a packet
transaction : a sequential code block that is atomic and isolated from other
such code blocks. We have developed this idea in Domino, a C-like imperative
language to express data-plane algorithms. We show with many examples that
Domino provides a convenient and natural way to express sophisticated
data-plane algorithms, and show that these algorithms can be run at line rate
with modest estimated die-area overhead.Comment: 16 page
A NPC Behaviour Definition System for Use by Programmers and Designers
In this paper we describe ZBL/0, a scripting system for defining NPC (Non Player Character) behaviour in FPS (First Person Shooter) games. ZBL/0 has been used to illustrate the use of scripting systems in computer games in general and the scripting of NPC behaviour in particular in the context of a book on game development. Many novice game designers
have clear ideas about how the computer game they imagine should work but have little knowledge â if any â about how their ideas can be implemented. This is why books on game creation (design, programming etc.), as well as all-in-one game creation systems â especially designed for ease of use and intended for an amateur audience â enjoy great popularity. A large proportion of these books however merely present solutions in the form of descriptions and explanations of specific implementations with inadequate
explanations of principles. While this may benefit rapid application development it often does not lead to a deeper understanding of the underlying concepts. The understanding of rule-based behaviour definition through simple scripting in computer games and the development of such scripts by programmers and designers is what we aim to address with the ZBL/0 system
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