Research Seminar - June 04, 2004

Reconfigurable Computing

 

Time: 11am Friday June 4

Computer Science & Software Engineering

Seminar Room 1.24

Speaker:
Dr Heiko Kalte

Abstract:

Reconfigurable computing refers to any information-processing system in which blocks of hardware can be reorganized or repurposed to adapt to changing data flows or algorithms. Popular platforms for reconfigurable computing are Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). These devices consist of an array of logic elements, flip-flops, RAMs and programmable interconnect wiring. The functionality of an FPGA can be reconfigured unlimited times since the configurations are usually stored in SRAM memory cells. Some of currently available FPGAs offer the additional feature of partial reconfigura-tion, which allows the change of hardware modules while others keep working. Combining the high gate density and the feature of partial reconfiguration enables the integration of dynamic systems that can be adapted to changing demands during runtime. Consequently, dynamically reconfigurable sys-tems suffer neither from the inflexibility of Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) nor from the mostly sequential processing of CPUs. One crucial aspect when designing such a system is an effi-cient placement and scheduling strategy for the changing hardware modules. Another important issue is the implementation of the communication infrastructure between the modules. Within the presenta-tion the basics of FPGAs will be briefly introduced, followed by a new system approach that enables fine grained 1D-placement of arbitrary hardware modules along a horizontal communication infra-structure. Unlike most theoretical approaches, the approach presented here is realizable with currently available devices and development tools.

About the Speaker:

Heiko Kalte was born in 1973 in Kassel (Germany). From 1993 until 1999 he studied electrical engi-neering with a specialization in microelectronics and digital circuit design at the University of Pader-born (Germany). Afterwards he was a scholar of the graduate centre at the Heinz Nixdorf Institute. Be-tween 2002 and March 2004 he worked as a research fellow at the department of System and Circuit Technology of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ulrich Rückert at the University of Paderborn. In December 2003 he fin-ished his PhD in the area of embedded reconfigurable architectures. In March 2004 Heiko Kalte re-ceived a scholarship for post-doc studies from the German Research Council. Currently, he continues his research in the area of reconfigurable computing at the University of Western Australia. His inter-ests are system and circuit design, application specific integrated circuits, field-programmable gate ar-rays, rapid-prototyping and reconfigurable architectures.