Instruction set synthesis with efficient instruction encoding for configurable processors

Application-specific instructions can significantly improve the performance, energy-efficiency, and code size of configurable processors. While generating new instructions from application-specific operation patterns has been a common way to improve the instruction set (IS) of a configurable processor, automating the design of ISs for given applications poses new challenges - -how to create as well as utilize new instructions in a systematic manner, and how to choose the best set of application-specific instructions considering the various effects the new instructions may have on the data path and the compilation To address these problems, we present a novel IS synthesis framework that optimizes the IS through an efficient instruction encoding for the given application as well as for the given data path architecture. We first build a library of new instructions created with various encoding alternatives taking into account the data path architecture constraints, and then select the best set of instructions while satisfying the instruction bitwidth constraint. We formulate the problem using integer linear programming and also present an effective heuristic algorithm. Experimental results using our technique generate ISs that show improvements of up to about 40% over the native IS for several application benchmarks running on typical embedded RISC processors.close3

Design Automation Model for Application-Specific Processors on Reconfigurable Fabric

The process of embedded system design on reconfigurable architectures needs smart solutions to reduce development life-cycle and to use resources efficiently at run-time. Current solutions are insufficient to enable the embedded system designer to reflect the flexibility that a reconfigurable architecture can offer. Some of the basic problems are lack of flexible operator definitions, very detailed hardware abstraction procedures, a few or no constraints for tasks or loops at the high-level of design abstraction. In this paper, we propose a new model for automated design of application-specific processors in run-time reconfigurable architectures, solving the aforementioned inefficiency problems. Based on the proposal, a design language, a framework and a compiler have also been developed