AN AUTOMATED PROGRAMMING TOOL FOR FPGA-BASED RECONFIGURABLE SYSTEMS

FIELD PROGRAMMABLE GATE ARRAYS (FPGAS) AND FIELD PROGRAMMABLE INTERCONNECT DEVICES (FPIDS) HAVE THE ABILITY TO INTEGRATE THOUSANDS OF LOGIC GATES ON A SMALL BOARD IN WHICH THE INTERCONNECTIONS CAN BE COMPLETELY REARRANGED WITHIN MILLISECONDS WITHOUT MANUAL EFFORT. USING FPGAS AND FPIDS, IT IS NOW POSSIBLE TO CONSTRUCT A SINGLE BOARD FOR A PC THAT CAN ACT AS A FAX, ISDN INTERFACE, LAN INTERFACE, VIDEO COMPRESSOR, COPROCESSOR, OR ANY OTHER FUNCTION THAT CAN BE BUILT USING LOGIC GATES. A MAJOR OBSTACLE TO USING A PRACTICAL RECONFIGURABLE SYSTEM IS THE LACK OF SOFTWARE TOOLS TO AID IN DESIGNING APPLICATIONS TO RUN ON SUCH SYSTEMS. THIS RESEARCH WILL EXAMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF BUILDING A TOOL FOR MAPPING LOGIC DESIGNS TO ARBITRARY RECONFIGURABLE ARCHITECTURES. THIS SOFTWARE TOOL WILL USE NEW TECHNIQUES FROM STATISTICAL MECHANICS AND NEURAL NETWORKS TO AUTOMATE THE SEARCH FOR GOOD SOLUTIONS. FLEXIBILITY WILL BE BUILT IN SO IT CAN BE USED WITH A WIDE VARIETY OF FPGAS, FPIDS, AND INTERCONNECTION ARRANGEMENTS. SUCH A TOOL INCREASES THE NUMBER OF APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE FOR RECONFIGURABLE SYSTEMS, WHICH INCREASES THE NUMBER OF SUCH SYSTEMS SOLD.