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

Design and management of image processing pipelines within CPS: Acquired experience towards the end of the FitOptiVis ECSEL Project

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) are dynamic and reactive systems interacting with processes, environment and, sometimes, humans. They are often distributed with sensors and actuators, characterized for being smart, adaptive, predictive and react in real-time. Indeed, image- and video-processing pipelines are a prime source for environmental information for systems allowing them to take better decisions according to what they see. Therefore, in FitOptiVis, we are developing novel methods and tools to integrate complex image- and video-processing pipelines. FitOptiVis aims to deliver a reference architecture for describing and optimizing quality and resource management for imaging and video pipelines in CPSs both at design- and run-time. The architecture is concretized in low-power, high-performance, smart components, and in methods and tools for combined design-time and run-time multi-objective optimization and adaptation within system and environment constraints

Meeting the challenges of decentralized embedded applications using multi-agent systems

International audienceToday embedded applications become large scale andstrongly constrained. They require a decentralized embedded intelligencegenerating challenges for embedded systems. A multi-agent approach iswell suited to model and design decentralized embedded applications.It is naturally able to take up some of these challenges. But somespecific points have to be introduced, enforced or improved in multiagentapproaches to reach all features and all requirements. In thisarticle, we present a study of specific activities that can complementmulti-agent paradigm in the ”embedded” context.We use our experiencewith the DIAMOND method to introduce and illustrate these featuresand activities

Cognitive Radio Programming: Existing Solutions and Open Issues

Software defined radio (sdr) technology has evolved rapidly and is now reaching market maturity, providing solutions for cognitive radio applications. Still, a lot of issues have yet to be studied. In this paper, we highlight the constraints imposed by recent radio protocols and we present current architectures and solutions for programming sdr. We also list the challenges to overcome in order to reach mastery of future cognitive radios systems.La radio logicielle a évolué rapidement pour atteindre la maturité nécessaire pour être mise sur le marché, offrant de nouvelles solutions pour les applications de radio cognitive. Cependant, beaucoup de problèmes restent à étudier. Dans ce papier, nous présentons les contraintes imposées par les nouveaux protocoles radios, les architectures matérielles existantes ainsi que les solutions pour les programmer. De plus, nous listons les difficultés à surmonter pour maitriser les futurs systèmes de radio cognitive

Applying Software Product Lines to Build Autonomic Pervasive Systems

In this Master Thesis, we have proposed a model-driven Software Product Line (SPL) for developing autonomic pervasive systems. The work focusses on reusing the Variability knowledge from the SPL design to the SPL products. This Variability knowledge enables SPL products to deal with adaptation scenarios (evolution and involution) in an autonomic way.Cetina Englada, C. (2008). Applying Software Product Lines to Build Autonomic Pervasive Systems. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/12447Archivo delegad

Reconfigurable Computing Systems for Robotics using a Component-Oriented Approach

Robotic platforms are becoming more complex due to the wide range of modern applications, including multiple heterogeneous sensors and actuators. In order to comply with real-time and power-consumption constraints, these systems need to process a large amount of heterogeneous data from multiple sensors and take action (via actuators), which represents a problem as the resources of these systems have limitations in memory storage, bandwidth, and computational power. Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are programmable logic devices that offer high-speed parallel processing. FPGAs are particularly well-suited for applications that require real-time processing, high bandwidth, and low latency. One of the fundamental advantages of FPGAs is their flexibility in designing hardware tailored to specific needs, making them adaptable to a wide range of applications. They can be programmed to pre-process data close to sensors, which reduces the amount of data that needs to be transferred to other computing resources, improving overall system efficiency. Additionally, the reprogrammability of FPGAs enables them to be repurposed for different applications, providing a cost-effective solution that needs to adapt quickly to changing demands. FPGAs' performance per watt is close to that of Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), with the added advantage of being reprogrammable. Despite all the advantages of FPGAs (e.g., energy efficiency, computing capabilities), the robotics community has not fully included them so far as part of their systems for several reasons. First, designing FPGA-based solutions requires hardware knowledge and longer development times as their programmability is more challenging than Central Processing Units (CPUs) or Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). Second, porting a robotics application (or parts of it) from software to an accelerator requires adequate interfaces between software and FPGAs. Third, the robotics workflow is already complex on its own, combining several fields such as mechanics, electronics, and software. There have been partial contributions in the state-of-the-art for FPGAs as part of robotics systems. However, a study of FPGAs as a whole for robotics systems is missing in the literature, which is the primary goal of this dissertation. Three main objectives have been established to accomplish this. (1) Define all components required for an FPGAs-based system for robotics applications as a whole. (2) Establish how all the defined components are related. (3) With the help of Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) techniques, generate these components, deploy them, and integrate them into existing solutions. The component-oriented approach proposed in this dissertation provides a proper solution for designing and implementing FPGA-based designs for robotics applications. The modular architecture, the tool 'FPGA Interfaces for Robotics Middlewares' (FIRM), and the toolchain 'FPGA Architectures for Robotics' (FAR) provide a set of tools and a comprehensive design process that enables the development of complex FPGA-based designs more straightforwardly and efficiently. The component-oriented approach contributed to the state-of-the-art in FPGA-based designs significantly for robotics applications and helps to promote their wider adoption and use by specialists with little FPGA knowledge

High level design and control of adaptive multiprocessor system-on-chips

The design of modern embedded systems is getting more and more complex, as more func- tionality is integrated into these systems. At the same time, in order to meet the compu- tational requirements while keeping a low level power consumption, MPSoCs have emerged as the main solutions for such embedded systems. Furthermore, embedded systems are be- coming more and more adaptive, as the adaptivity can bring a number of benefits, such as software flexibility and energy efficiency. This thesis targets the safe design of such adaptive MPSoCs. First, each system configuration must be analyzed concerning its functional and non- functional properties. We present an abstract design and analysis framework, which allows for faster and cost-effective implementation decisions. This framework is intended as an intermediate reasoning support for system level software/hardware co-design environments. It can prune the design space at its largest, and identify candidate design solutions in a fast and efficient way. In the framework, we use an abstract clock-based encoding to model system behaviors. Different mapping and scheduling scenarios of applications on MPSoCs are analyzed via clock traces representing system simulations. Among properties of interest are functional behavioral correctness, temporal performance and energy consumption. Second, the reconfiguration management of adaptive MPSoCs must be addressed. We are specially interested in MPSoCs implemented on reconfigurable hardware architectures (i.e., FPGA fabrics), which provide a good flexibility and computational efficiency for adap- tive MPSoCs. We propose a general design framework based on the discrete controller syn- thesis (DCS) technique to address this issue. The main advantage of this technique is that it allows the automatic controller synthesis w.r.t. a given specification of control objectives. In the framework, the system reconfiguration behavior is modeled in terms of synchronous parallel automata. The reconfiguration management computation problem w.r.t. multiple objectives regarding e.g., resource usages, performance and power consumption is encoded as a DCS problem. The existing BZR programming language and Sigali tool are employed to perform DCS and generate a controller that satisfies the system requirements. Finally, we investigate two different ways of combining the two proposed design frame- works for adaptive MPSoCs. Firstly, they are combined to construct a complete design flow for adaptive MPSoCs. Secondly, they are combined to present how the designed run-time manager by the second framework can be integrated into the first framework so that high level simulations can be performed to assess the run-time manager.La conception de systèmes embarqués modernes est de plus en plus complexe, car plus de fonctionnalités sont intégrées dans ces systèmes. En même temps, afin de répondre aux exigences de calcul tout en conservant une consommation d'énergie de faible niveau, MPSoCs sont apparus comme les principales solutions pour tels systèmes embarqués. En outre, les systèmes embarqués sont de plus en plus adaptatifs, comme l’adaptabilité peut apporter un certain nombre d'avantages, tels que la flexibilité du logiciel et l'efficacité énergétique. Cette thèse vise la conception sécuritaire de ces MPSoCs adaptatifs. Tout d'abord, chaque configuration de système doit être analysée en ce qui concerne ses propriétés fonctionnelles et non fonctionnelles. Nous présentons un cadre abstraite de conception et d’analyse qui permet des décisions d’implémentation plus rapide et plus rentable. Ce cadre est conçu comme un support de raisonnement intermédiaire pour les environnements de co-conception de logiciel / matériel au niveau de système. Il peut élaguer l'espace de conception à sa plus grande portée, et identifier les candidats de solutions de conception de manière rapide et efficace. Dans ce cadre, nous utilisons un codage basé sur l’horloge abstrait pour modéliser les comportements du système. Différents scénarios d'applications de mapping et de planification sur MPSoCs sont analysés via les traces d'horloge qui représentent les simulations du système. Les propriétés d'intérêt sont l’exactitude du comportement fonctionnel, la performance temporelle et la consommation d'énergie. Deuxièmement, la gestion de la reconfiguration de MPSoCs adaptatifs doit être abordée. Nous sommes particulièrement intéressés par les MPSoCs implémentés sur des architectures reconfigurables de hardware (ex. FPGA tissus) qui offrent une bonne flexibilité et une efficacité de calcul pour les MPSoCs adaptatifs. Nous proposons un cadre général de conception basésur la technique de la synthèse de contrôleurs discrets (SCD) pour résoudre ce problème. L’avantage principal de cette technique est qu'elle permet une synthèse d'un contrôleur automatique vis-à-vis d’une spécification donnée des objectifs de contrôle. Dans ce cadre, le comportement de reconfiguration du système est modélisé en termes d'automates synchrones en parallèle. Le problème de calcul de la gestion reconfiguration vis-à-vis de multiples objectifs concernant, par exemple, les usages des ressources, la performance et la consommation d’énergie est codé comme un problème de SCD . Le langage de programmation BZR existant et l’outil Sigali sont employés pour effectuer SCD et générer un contrôleur qui satisfait aux exigences du système. Finalement, nous étudions deux façons différentes de combiner les deux cadres de conception proposées pour MPSoCs adaptatifs. Tout d'abord, ils sont combinés pour construire un flot de conception complet pour MPSoCs adaptatifs. Deuxièmement, ils sont combinés pour présenter la façon dont le gestionnaire d'exécution conçu dans le second cadre peut être intégré dans le premier cadre de sorte que les simulations de haut niveau peuvent être effectuées pour évaluer le gestionnaire d'exécution

A Model of Computation for Reconfigurable Systems

The dissertation introduces RecDEVS, a model of computation for reconfigurable hardware systems. Existing computational models for conventional hardware structures are not suited very well to model the dynamic behavior of reconfigurable systems. This work first systematically investigates the requirements that are necessary to properly model reconfigurable systems. Then, the Discrete Event System Specification (DEVS) formalism is extended into RecDEVS, a formalism capable of modeling reconfigurable systems. It is then demonstrated how RecDEVS can be utilized to do a a model based design flow that eases system verification

ETSI reconfigurable radio systems: status and future directions on software defined radio and cognitive radio standards

This article details the current work status of the ETSI Reconfigurable Radio Systems Technical Committee, positions the ETSI work with respect to other standards efforts (IEEE 802, IEEE SCC41) as well as the European Regulatory Framework, and gives an outlook on the future evolution. In particular, software defined radio related study results are presented with a focus on SDR architectures for mobile devices such as mobile phones. For MDs, a novel architecture and inherent interfaces are presented enabling the usage of SDR principles in a mass market context. Cognitive radio principles within ETSI RRS are concentrated on two topics, a cognitive pilot channel proposal and a Functional Architecture for Management and control of reconfigurable radio systems, including dynamic self-organizing planning and management, dynamic spectrum management, joint radio resource management. Finally, study results are indicated that are targeting a SDR/CR security framework.Postprint (published version