Programmable Hardware Hardware or Software Christoph Angerer May
Programmable Hardware: Hardware or Software? Christoph Angerer May 16 th 2007 Christoph Angerer
Outline n n n What is programmable hardware Properties of hardware and software Characteristics of programmable hardware May 16 th 2007 Christoph Angerer
Programmable Hardware n n n FPGAs (configureable logic elements, memory, embedded blocks) Technology: SRAM, Flash, EPROM, (anti-) fuse. Number of reconfigurations May 16 th 2007 Christoph Angerer
Characteristics of HW and SW flexibility design cycles real time capabilities architecture exploration Hardware little Software good long good short little good architecture predefined existing hardware custom suited security yes good result / output update circuit not feasible May 16 th 2007 Christoph Angerer little code possible
Programmable Hardware: Design Flow n Input: Schematics, HDL (VHDL, Verilog) n Hardware constraints n System. C (Celoxica, Cadence) n C/C++ (Catapult C Mentor Graphics, ART Designer) n n Output: n Bit file, circuit May 16 th 2007 Christoph Angerer
Programmable Hardware: Design Flow n Characteristics: Simulation at different abstraction layers n Synthesize (netlist) n Place and Route n Timing n n Design cycles: Low level design n Rapid prototyping n May 16 th 2007 Christoph Angerer
Programmable Hardware Flexibility n n Update capabilities limited Architecture custom suited n n n Interfaces to external hardware components Rapid prototyping / design cycles Reconfigureable computing n n n one control device (µ-processor) (re-) configures several dedicated hardware components. embedded single chip solutions also at runtime May 16 th 2007 Christoph Angerer
Programmable Hardware: Speed n n n Architecture exploration almost as good as for ASICs Flexible configurations (bus widths, pipeline stages, …) Speed / area trade off Low level optimisations (critical paths, manual place and route etc. ) possible Real time capabilities May 16 th 2007 Christoph Angerer
Programmable Hardware Reliability, Security n n Extensive testing and „hardware – like“ design flow Hardly possible to duplicate without sources Encryption possible (Lattice FPGAs) Duplication of critical parts May 16 th 2007 Christoph Angerer
Summary n Hardware – like properties: n n Software – like properties: n n Speed, security and reliability, design flow, real time capabilities, architecture exploration Rapid prototyping, flexibility, reconfigureable computing Closes gap between HW and SW n Depends on degree of flexibility May 16 th 2007 Christoph Angerer
? ? ? Questions ? ? ? May 16 th 2007 Christoph Angerer
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