Circuits and architectures for field programmable gate array with configurable supply voltage

Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) with supply voltage (Vdd) programmability have been proposed recently to reduce FPGA power, where the Vdd-level can be customized for FPGA circuit elements and unused circuit elements can be power-gated. In this paper, we first design novel Vdd-programmable and Vdd-gateable interconnect switches with minimal number of configuration SRAM cells. We then evaluate Vdd-programmable FPGA architectures using the new switches. The best architecture in our study uses Vdd-programmable logic blocks and Vdd-gateable interconnects. Compared to the baseline architecture similar to the leading commercial architecture, our best architecture reduces the minimal energy-delay product by 54.39% with 17% more area and 3% more configuration SRAM cells. Our evaluation results also show that LUT size 4 gives the lowest energy consumption, and LUT size 7 leads to the highest performance, both for all evaluated architectures.     

Floating-Point FPGA: Architecture and Modeling

This paper presents an architecture for a reconfigurable device that is specifically optimized for floating-point applications. Fine-grained units are used for implementing control logic and bit-oriented operations, while parameterized and reconfigurable word-based coarse-grained units incorporating word-oriented lookup tables and floating-point operations are used to implement datapaths. In order to facilitate comparison with existing FPGA devices, the virtual embedded block scheme is proposed to model embedded blocks using existing field-programmable gate array (FPGA) tools. This methodology involves adopting existing FPGA resources to model the size, position, and delay of the embedded elements. The standard design flow offered by FPGA and computer-aided design vendors is then applied and static timing analysis can be used to estimate the performance of the FPGA with the embedded blocks. On selected floating-point benchmark circuits, our results indicate that the proposed architecture can achieve four times improvement in speed and 25 times reduction in area compared with a traditional FPGA device.      

Stateful-NOR based reconfigurable architecture for logic implementation

Most commercial Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) have limitations in terms of density, speed, configuration overhead and power consumption mostly due to the use of SRAM cells in Look-Up Tables (LUTs), configuration memory and programmable interconnects. Also, hardwired Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) blocks designed for high performance arithmetic circuits in FPGA reduce the area available for reconfiguration. In this paper, we propose a novel generalized hybrid CMOS-memristor based architecture using stateful-NOR gates as basic building blocks for implementation of logic functions. These logic functions are implemented on memristor nanocrossbar layers, while the CMOS layer is used for selection and connection of memristors. The proposed pipelined architecture combines the features of ASIC, FPGA and microprocessor based designs. It has high density due to the use of nanocrossbar layer and high throughput especially for arithmetic circuits. The proposed architecture for three input one output logic block is compared with conventional LUT based Configurable Logic Block (CLB) having the same number of inputs and outputs; which shows 1.82×area saving, 1.57×speedup and 3.63×less power consumption. The automation algorithm to implement any logic function using proposed architecture is also presented.     

Enhanced reliability of finite-state machines in FPGA through efficient fault detection and correction

SRAM based FPGA are subjected to ion radiation in many operating environments. Following the current trend of shrinking device feature size & increasing die area, newer FPGA are more susceptible to radiation induced errors. Single event upsets (SEU), (also known as soft-errors) account for a considerable amount of radiation induced errors. SEU are difficult to detect & correct when they affect memory-elements present in the FPGA, which are used for the implementation of finite state machines (FSM). Conventional practice to improve FPGA design reliability in the presence of soft-errors is through configuration memory scrubbing, and through component redundancy. Configuration memory scrubbing, although suitable for combinatorial logic in an FPGA design, does not work for sequential blocks such as FSM. This is because the state-bits stored in flip-flops (FF) are variable, and change their value after each state transition. Component redundancy, which is also used to mitigate soft-errors, comes at the expense of significant area overhead, and increased power consumption compared to nonredundant designs. In this paper, we propose an alternate approach to implement the FSM using synchronous embedded memory blocks to enhance the runtime reliability without significant increase in power consumption. Experiments conducted on various benchmark FSM show that this approach has higher reliability, lower area overhead, and consumes less power compared to a component redundancy technique.     

A shapeshifting evolvable hardware mechanism based on reconfigurable memFETs crossbar architecture

In this work, a new technologic strategy that allows implementing large crossbars formed with memFETs, a new device concept, is introduced. This memFET is an electrically reconfigurable field effect and resistive switching device that can be used to implement logic functions and memory blocks into a crossbar structure, allowing the dynamic logic configuration of the crossbar and simplifying both the design and the implementation of computing hardware. Moreover, taking the advantage of reconfiguration capability of such a technology and architecture we introduce a novel technique to design evolvable hardware where not only the logic functions are changeable (as is the case of the Field Programmable Gate Array, FPGA) but also the physical position of the components on the surface of the integrated circuit. This technology and principle leads towards a new computing paradigm based on what we name Shape Shifting Digital Hardware (SSDH).     

Dual-Data Rate Transpose-Memory Architecture Improves the Performance,Power and Area of Signal-Processing Systems

This paper presents a novel type of high-speed and area-efficient register-based transpose memory architecture enabled by reporting on both edges of the clock. The proposed new architecture, by using the double-edge triggered registers, doubles the throughput and increases the maximum frequency by avoiding some of the combinational circuit used in prior work. The proposed design is evaluated with both FPGA and ASIC flow in 28/32nm technology. The experimental results show that the proposed memory achieves almost 4X improvement in throughput while consuming 46 % less area with the FPGA implementations compared to prior work. For ASIC implementations, it achieves more than 60 % area reduction and at least 2X performance improvement while burning 60 % less power compared to other register-based designs implemented with the same flow. As an example, a proposed 8X8 transpose memory with 12-bit input/output resolution is able to achieve a throughput of 107.83Gbps at 647MHz by taking only 140 slices on a Virtex-7 Xilinx FPGA platform, and achieve a throughput of 88.2Gbps at 529MHz by taking 0.024mm ² silicon area for ASIC. The proposed transpose memory is integrated in both 2D-DCT and 2D-IDCT blocks for signal processing applications on the same FPGA platform. The new architecture allows a 3.5X speed-up in performance for the 2D-DCT algorithm, compared to the previous work, while consuming 28 % less area, and 2D-IDCT achieves a 3X speed-up while consuming 20 % less area.     

一种基于AND-LUT的混合FPGA结构

提出了一种混合FPGA新结构--新颖的AND-LUT阵列结构.其创新之处在于由可编程逻辑簇(Cluster)和相关的连接盒(CB)组成的可编程逻辑单元片(Tile)可以根据应用需要灵活地配置成PLA或LUT,前者较适合于高扇入逻辑,后者较适合于低扇入逻辑.因此,结合两者优点的新颖AND-LUT阵列结构在实现各种输入的用户逻辑时都能保持很好的逻辑利用率.MCNC电路测试结果进一步表明,同一逻辑电路在文中提出的混合FPGA新结构中实现与在基于LUT的对称FPGA结构中实现相比,面积平均可节省46%,因而大大提高了FPGA器件的逻辑利用率.     

一种基于AND-LUT的混合FPGA结构

提出了一种混合FPGA新结构--新颖的AND-LUT阵列结构.其创新之处在于由可编程逻辑簇(Cluster)和相关的连接盒(CB)组成的可编程逻辑单元片(Tile)可以根据应用需要灵活地配置成PLA或LUT,前者较适合于高扇入逻辑,后者较适合于低扇入逻辑.因此,结合两者优点的新颖AND-LUT阵列结构在实现各种输入的用户逻辑时都能保持很好的逻辑利用率.MCNC电路测试结果进一步表明,同一逻辑电路在文中提出的混合FPGA新结构中实现与在基于LUT的对称FPGA结构中实现相比,面积平均可节省46%,因而大大提高了FPGA器件的逻辑利用率.     

SAT based solutions for detailed routing of island style FPGA architectures

Detailed routing solutions for island style FPGA architectures using Boolean satisfiability (SAT) based formulations have been proposed in this paper. Due to decreasing size of ICs and hence, the increasing complexity of the routing resource constraints, routing has been a big challenge in electronic design automation field. Our proposed techniques work on multi-pin net routing where all nets are considered for routing in their intact form whereas, most of the existing routing solutions decompose multi-pin nets into two-pin nets for detailed routing to ease the problem. However this approach, apart from increasing the number of nets in the circuits, may also introduce pin doglegging which, when not permitted by the architecture of FPGA, would require extra constraints to eliminate. Many detailed routers adopt sequential detailed routing approaches which are vulnerable to the net ordering problem which may cause a routable circuit to be erroneously classified as unroutable. Our proposed techniques avoid these pitfalls by keeping the multi-pin nets intact and solve all nets simultaneously using SAT. The SAT-based multi-pin net dogleg-free formulations presented here achieve significant improvement over existing SAT-based solutions with respect to the number of variables and clauses used, thereby achieving greater scalability and also display comparable and sometimes better routability results on benchmark circuits when compared with other detailed routing solutions. Detailed routing is also significantly affected by the architecture of the switching blocks. This paper proposes SAT-based formulation for three different switch box architectures i.e. Subset, Wilton, and Universal switches. Our experiments clearly demonstrate how routing solutions for a circuit can differ significantly for different types of switch boxes.     

Circuit techniques for a 1.8-V-only NAND flash memory

Focusing on internal high-voltage (V_pp) switching and generation for low-voltage NAND flash memories, this paper describes a V _(pp) switch, row decoder, and charge-pump circuit. The proposed nMOS V_pp switch is composed of only intrinsic high-voltage transistors without channel implantation, which realizes both reduction of the minimum operating voltage and elimination of the V _pp leakage current. The proposed row decoder scheme is described in which all blocks are in selected state in standby so as to prevent standby current from flowing through the proposed V_pp switches in the row decoder. A merged charge-pump scheme generates a plurality of voltage levels with an individually optimized efficiency, which reduces circuit area in comparison with the conventional scheme that requires a separate charge-pump circuit for each voltage level. The proposed circuits were implemented on an experimental NAND flash memory. The charge pump and V_pp switch successfully operated at a supply voltage of 1.8 V with a standby current of 10 μA. The proposed pump scheme reduced the area required for charge-pump circuits by 40%     

Low-Power Programmable FPGA Routing Circuitry

We consider circuit techniques for reducing field-programmable gate-array (FPGA) power consumption and propose a family of new FPGA routing switch designs that are programmable to operate in three different modes: high-speed, low-power, or sleep. High-speed mode provides similar power and performance to traditional FPGA routing switches. In low-power mode, speed is curtailed in order to reduce power consumption. Leakage is reduced by 28%–52% in low-power versus high-speed mode, depending on the particular switch design selected. Dynamic power is reduced by 28%–31% in low-power mode. Leakage power in sleep mode, which is suitable for unused routing switches, is 61%–79% lower than in high-speed mode. Each of the proposed switch designs has a different power/area/speed tradeoff. All of the designs require only minor changes to a traditional routing switch and involve relatively small area overhead, making them easy to incorporate into current commercial FPGAs. The applicability of the new switches is motivated through an analysis of timing slack in industrial FPGA designs. It is observed that a considerable fraction of routing switches may be slowed down (operate in low-power mode), without impacting overall design performance.      

利用Altera增强型配置片实现FPGA动态配置

在当今复杂数字电路设计中,大多采用以"嵌入式微控制器 FPGA"为核心的体系结构.提出了一种对现有传统FPGA配置方案硬件电路稍做调整并增加部分软件功能,即可实现FPGA动态配置的方案.该方案的可行性和实用性已在实际系统中得到验证.     

A routing algorithm for FPGAs with time-multiplexed interconnects

Previous studies show that interconnects occupy a large portion of the timing budget and area in FPGAs.In this work,we propose a time-multiplexing technique on FPGA interconnects.In order to fully exploit this interconnect architecture,we propose a time-multiplexed routing algorithm that can actively identify qualified nets and schedule them to multiplexable wires.We validate the algorithm by using the router to implement 20 benchmark circuits to time-multiplexed FPGAs.We achieve a 38%smaller minimum channel width and 3.8%smaller circuit critical path delay compared with the state-of-the-art architecture router when a wire can be time-multiplexed six times in a cycle.     

FPGA布线结构的蒙特卡罗评估

提出一种基于蒙特卡罗技术的FPGA结构研究新方法。该方法在布线资源中随机产生均匀分布的开路故障,并绕开障碍物布线互连,不依赖于CAD算法和基准电路。开关块拓扑分析实例表明该方法与CAD方法的结论一致,而评估时间从15小时缩短到15分钟。     

Evaluating Different Solutions to Design Fault Tolerant Systems with SRAM-based FPGAs

The latest SRAM-based FPGA devices are making the development of low-cost, high-performance, re-configurable systems feasible, paving the way for innovative architectures suitable for mission- or safety-critical applications, such as those dominating the space or avionic fields. Unfortunately, SRAM-based FPGAs are extremely sensitive to Single Event Upsets (SEUs) induced by radiation. SEUs may alter the logic value stored in the memory elements the FPGAs embed. A large part of the FPGA memory elements is dedicated to the configuration memory, whose content dictates how the resources inside the FPGA have to be used to implement any given user circuit, SEUs affecting configuration memory cells can be extremely critics. Facing the effects of SEUs through radiation-hardened FPGAs is not cost-effective. Therefore, various fault-tolerant design techniques have been devised for developing dependable solutions, starting from Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) SRAM-based FPGAs. These techniques present advantages and disadvantages that must be evaluated carefully to exploit them successfully. In this paper we mainly adopted an empirical analysis approach. We evaluated the reliability of a multiplier, a digital FIR filter, and an 8051 microprocessor implemented in SRAM-based FPGA’s, by means of extensive fault-injection experiments, assessing the capability provided by different design techniques of tolerating SEUs within the FPGA configuration memory. Experimental results demonstrate that by combining architecture-level solutions (based on redundancy) with layout-level solutions (based on reliability-oriented place and route) designers may implement reliable re-configurable systems choosing the best solution that minimizes the penalty in terms of area and speed degradation.     

符合CMMB标准的LDPC解码器设计

根据CMMB中LDPC码校验矩阵的结构特点,提出了一种部分并行译码结构的实现方法,并在Altera的StratixlI-EP2S180F1020C3型FPGA上实现了这种结构.该设计合理利用了LDPC校验矩阵的规律,使用了一种适当的存储器调用的控制策略.在几乎不增加硬件资源的情况下,实现了两种码率的复用.     

层次式布线资源FPGA连线开关的设计

提出了一种层次式布线资源FPGA连线开关的设计方法,采用迷宫算法,对连线开关的结构进行了分析.针对连线连接盒CB(connection box),提出了较为节省芯片面积的半连通结构;针对连线开关盒SB(switch box),在给出连通度fs概念后,提出了使SB连通能力达到最大值的设计方法,并通过数学推导予以证明.应用这种设计方法,设计了一种fs＝3的SB;成功地实现了采用这种结构的SB和半连通CB作为连线开关的FPGA芯片FDP-100K.该芯片在电路布通率和芯片面积方面取得了较好的平衡结果.     

JPEG2000中DWT-EBCOT联合的高效低存储VLSI结构

针对JPEG2000硬件实现中小波变换与编码之间占用大量存储的问题,该文提出一种基于码块的存储方案。通过对码块大小片内存储最大程度的复用以及对其高效简单的调度控制,从面积和功耗两方面减小了硬件实现的开销。在实现中,采用基于行的提升变换结构和比特平面并行的编码方式,提高了效率,确保整个过程的实时处理。实验结果表明:在实时编码要求下,对分辨率为512512的图像分片进行四级9/7或者5/3小波分解,码块大小为3232,采用本文结构所用的存储量与直接使用外部存储器的方法相比可减少80%以上。整个结构已通过FPGA验证,且系统时钟可以工作在100MHz。     

一种基于与非锥簇架构FPGA输入交叉互连设计优化方法

该文针对与非锥(And-Inverter Cone, AIC)簇架构FPGA开发中面临的簇面积过大的瓶颈问题,对其输入交叉互连设计优化进行深入研究,在评估优化流程层次,首次创新性提出装箱网表统计法对AIC簇输入和反馈资源占用情况进行分析,为设计及优化输入交叉互连结构提供指导,以更高效获得优化参数。针对输入交叉互连模块,在结构参数设计层次,首次提出将引脚输入和输出反馈连通率分离独立设计,并通过大量的实验,获得最优连通率组合。在电路设计实现层次,有效利用AIC逻辑锥电路结构特点,首次提出双相输入交叉互连电路实现。相比于已有的AIC簇结构,通过该文提出的优化方法所得的AIC簇自身面积可减小21.21%,面积制约问题得到了明显改善。在实现MCNC和VTR应用电路集时,与Altera公司的FPGA芯片Stratix IV(LUT架构)相比,采用具有该文所设计的输入交叉互连结构的AIC架构FPGA,平均面积延时积分别减小了48.49%和26.29%;与传统AIC架构FPGA相比,平均面积延时积分别减小了28.48%和28.37%,显著提升了FPGA的整体性能。