REFLECT · Rendering FPGAs to Multi-Core Embedded Computing

The relentless increase in capacity of Field-Programmable Gate-Arrays (FPGAs) makes them vehicles of choice for both prototypes and final products requiring on-chip multi-core, heterogeneous and reconfigurable systems. Multiple cores can be embedded as hard- or soft-macros, have customizable instruction sets, multiple distributed RAMs and/or configurable interconnections. Their flexibility allows them to achieve orders of magnitude better performance than conventional computing systems via customization. Programming these systems, however, is extremely cumbersome and error-prone and as a result their true potential is only achieved at an unreasonably high effort.This project will develop, implement and evaluate a novel compilation and synthesis system approach for FPGA-based platforms. We rely on Aspect-Oriented (AO) Specifications to covey critical domain knowledge to a mapping engine while preserving the advantages of a high-level imperative programming paradigm in early software development and portability. We leverage AO specifications and a set of transformations to generate an intermediate representation using an extensible mapping language (LARA). LARA specifications will allow the exploration of alternative architectures and run-time adaptive strategies enabling the generation of flexible hardware cores that can be easily incorporated into larger multi-core designs. We will evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach using partner-provided codes from the domain of audio/video processing and real-time avionics.We expect the technology developed here to be integrated by our industrial partners, a leading compilation tool supplier for reconfigurable systems and a worldwide solution supplier of embedded high-performance systems. The academic partners will promote human resources with technical excellence in the area of architectures and software development thus enabling the sustainability of a vibrant information technology European fabric.