Method and system for managing hardware resources to implement system functions using an adaptive computing architecture

• US 7,752,419 B1
• Filed: 12/12/2001
• Issued: 07/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Altera Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Original Assignee: QST Holdings LLC
• Inventors: Heidari, Ghobad, Master, Paul L., Plunkett, Robert T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Li, Aimee J
• Application Number:
  US10/015,530
• Time in Patent Office: 3,128 Days
• Field of Search: 712/15, 712 20- 22, 712/221
• US Class Current: 712/15
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/177 Initialisation or configuration control processor initialisation G06F9/4405
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/7867 with reconfigurable architecture
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

The present invention concerns a new category of integrated circuitry and a new methodology for adaptive or reconfigurable computing. The exemplary IC embodiment includes a plurality of heterogeneous computational elements coupled to an interconnection network. The plurality of heterogeneous computational elements include corresponding computational elements having fixed and differing architectures, such as fixed architectures for different functions such as memory, addition, multiplication, complex multiplication, subtraction, configuration, reconfiguration, control, input, output, and field programmability. In response to configuration information, the interconnection network is operative in real-time to configure and reconfigure the plurality of heterogeneous computational elements for a plurality of different functional modes, including linear algorithmic operations, non-linear algorithmic operations, finite state machine operations, memory operations, and bit-level manipulations. The various fixed architectures are selected to comparatively minimize power consumption and increase performance of the adaptive computing integrated circuit, particularly suitable for mobile, hand-held or other battery-powered computing applications. In an exemplary embodiment, some or all of the computational elements are alternately configured to implement two or more functions.

Claims

1. An adaptive computing integrated circuit configurable to perform a plurality of functions, comprising:

a first computational unit including a first plurality of heterogeneous computational elements;

a first computational interconnection network coupled to the plurality of heterogeneous computational elements, the first computational interconnection network operative to configure connections between the first plurality of heterogeneous computational elements;

a second digital processing unit including a second plurality of heterogeneous computational elements and a digital processing computational interconnection network coupled to the second plurality of heterogeneous computational elements, the second computational interconnection network operative to configure the connections between the second plurality of heterogeneous elements;

wherein a first functional unit is configured by establishing connections between a first group of the first and second plurality of heterogeneous computational elements via the interconnection networks to implement a first function;

wherein a second functional unit is configured by establishing connections between a second group of the first and second plurality of heterogeneous computational elements via the interconnection networks to implement a second function; and

wherein if the second function is not currently used, one or more of the second group of heterogeneous computational elements are reconfigurable by changing the connections between the heterogeneous computational elements of the second group via the interconnection networks to implement the first function.

2. The adaptive computing integrated circuit of claim 1 wherein if the second function is not currently used, the one or more of the second group of heterogeneous computational elements are reconfigurable to implement the first function by forming one or more additional instances of the first functional unit.

3. The adaptive computing integrated circuit of claim 1 wherein if the second function is not currently used, one or more of the first group of heterogeneous computational elements and the one or more of the second group of heterogeneous computational elements are reconfigurable to form a single functional unit to implement the first function.

4. The adaptive computing integrated circuit of claim 1 wherein if the second function is not currently used, the one or more of the second group of heterogeneous computational elements are reconfigurable by the interconnection network to implement one or more of the plurality of functions other than the second function.

5. The adaptive computing integrated circuit of claim 1 wherein if a third function is to be implemented, one or more of the first group of heterogeneous computational elements and/or the one or more of the second group of heterogeneous computational elements are reconfigurable by the interconnection network to implement the third function.

6. An adaptive computing integrated circuit, comprising:

a plurality of reconfigurable matrices, the plurality of reconfigurable matrices including a plurality of heterogeneous computational units, each heterogeneous computational unit having a plurality of fixed computational elements, the plurality of fixed computational elements including a first computational element having a first architecture and a second computational element having a second architecture, the first architecture distinct from the second architecture, the plurality of heterogeneous computational units coupled to an interconnect network and reconfigurable in response to configuration information; and

a matrix interconnection network coupled to the plurality of reconfigurable matrices, the matrix interconnection network operative to reconfigure the plurality of reconfigurable matrices in response to the configuration information for a plurality of operating modes;

wherein a first group of heterogeneous computational units is reconfigurable to form a first functional unit to implement a first operating mode;

wherein a second group of heterogeneous computational units is reconfigurable to form a second functional unit to implement a second operating mode; and

wherein if the second operating mode is not currently used while the first functional unit implements the first operating mode, one or more of the second group of heterogeneous computational units are reconfigurable to implement the first operating mode.

7. The adaptive computing integrated circuit of claim 6 wherein if the second operating mode is not currently used, the one or more of the second group of heterogeneous computational units are reconfigurable to implement the first operating mode by forming one or more additional instances of the first functional unit.

8. The adaptive computing integrated circuit of claim 6 wherein if the second operating mode is not currently used, one or more of the first group of heterogeneous computational units and the one or more of the second group of heterogeneous computational units are reconfigurable to form a single functional unit to implement the first operating mode.

9. The adaptive computing integrated circuit of claim 6 wherein if the second operating mode is not currently used, the one or more of the second group of heterogeneous computational units are reconfigurable to implement one or more of the plurality of operating modes other than the second operating mode.

10. The adaptive computing integrated circuit of claim 6 wherein if a third operating mode is to be implemented, one or more of the first group of heterogeneous computational units and/or the one or more of the second group of heterogeneous computational units are reconfigurable to implement the third operating mode.

11. An adaptive computing integrated circuit, comprising:

a plurality of heterogeneous computational elements, the plurality of heterogeneous computational elements including a first computational element and a second computational element, the first computational element having a first fixed architecture and the second computational element having a second fixed architecture, the first fixed architecture being different than the second fixed architecture, and the fixed architectures including at least one of the functions for memory, addition, multiplication, complex multiplication, subtraction, configuration, reconfiguration, control, input, output, and field programmability; and

an interconnection network coupled to the plurality of heterogeneous computational elements, the interconnection network operative to configure the plurality of heterogeneous computational elements;

wherein a first group of heterogeneous computational elements is reconfigurable to form a first functional unit to implement a first function;

wherein a second group of heterogeneous computational elements is reconfigurable to form a second functional unit to implement a second function; and

wherein if the second function is not currently used, while the first function is implemented by the first functional unit, one or more of the second group of heterogeneous computational elements are reconfigurable by the interconnection network to implement the first function.

12. The adaptive computing integrated circuit of claim 11 wherein if the second function is not currently used, the one or more of the second group of heterogeneous computational elements are reconfigurable to implement the first function by forming one or more additional instances of the first functional unit.

13. The adaptive computing integrated circuit of claim 11 wherein if the second function is not currently used, one or more of the first group of heterogeneous computational element and the one or more of the second group of heterogeneous computational elements are reconfigurable to form a single functional unit to implement the first function.

14. The adaptive computing integrated circuit of claim 11 wherein if the second function is not currently used, the one or more of the second group of heterogeneous computational elements are reconfigurable by the interconnection network to implement one or more of the plurality of functions other than the second function.

15. The adaptive computing integrated circuit of claim 11 wherein if a third function is to be implemented, one or more of the first group of heterogeneous computational elements and/or the one or more of the second group of heterogeneous computational elements are reconfigurable by the interconnection network to implement the third function.

16. An adaptive computing integrated circuit, comprising:

a plurality of heterogeneous computational elements, the plurality of heterogeneous computational elements including a first computational element and a second computational element, the first computational element having a first fixed architecture and the second computational element having a second fixed architecture, the first fixed architecture being different than the second fixed architecture; and

an interconnection network coupled to the plurality of heterogeneous computational elements, the interconnection network operative to configure a first group of heterogeneous computational elements to form a first functional unit for a first functional mode, in response to first configuration information, and the interconnection network further operative to reconfigure a second group of heterogeneous computational elements to form a second functional unit for a second functional mode, in response to second configuration information, the first functional mode being different than the second functional mode, and the functional modes including linear algorithmic operations, non-linear algorithmic operations, finite state machine operations, memory operations, and bit-level manipulations;

wherein if the second functional mode is not currently used while the first functional unit is operating in the first functional mode, one or more of the second group of heterogeneous computational units are reconfigurable to implement the first functional mode.

17. The adaptive computing integrated circuit of claim 16 wherein if the second functional mode is not currently used, the one or more of the second group of heterogeneous computational elements are reconfigurable to implement the first functional mode by forming one or more additional instances of the first functional unit.

18. The adaptive computing integrated circuit of claim 16 wherein if the second functional mode is not currently used, one or more of the first group of heterogeneous computational elements and the one or more of the second group of heterogeneous computational elements are reconfigurable to form a single functional unit to implement the first functional mode.

19. The adaptive computing integrated circuit of claim 16 wherein if the second functional mode is not currently used, the one or more of the second group of heterogeneous computational elements are reconfigurable by the interconnection network to implement additional functional modes other than the second functional mode.

20. The adaptive computing integrated circuit of claim 16 wherein if a third functional mode is to be implemented, one or more of the first group of heterogeneous computational elements and/or the one or more of the second group of heterogeneous computational elements are reconfigurable by the interconnection network to implement the third functional mode.

21. A method for allocating hardware resources within an adaptive computing integrated circuit, comprising:

in response to first configuration information, configuring a first group of heterogeneous computational elements to form a first functional unit to implement a first function and configuring a second group of heterogeneous computational elements to form a second functional unit to implement a second function; and

in response to second configuration information, reconfiguring one or more of the second group of heterogeneous computational elements to implement the first function while the first functional unit implements the first function.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the second configuration information is generated when the second function is not currently used.

23. The method of claim 21 wherein in response to the second configuration information, the one or more of the second group of heterogeneous computational elements are reconfigured to form one or more additional instances of the first functional unit to implement the first function.

24. The method of claim 21 wherein in response to the second configuration information, one or more of the first group of heterogeneous computational elements and the one or more of the second group of heterogeneous computational elements are reconfigured to form a single functional unit to implement the first function.

25. The method of claim 21 further comprising:

in response to third configuration information, reconfiguring one or more of the first group of heterogeneous computational elements and/or the one or more of the second group of heterogeneous computational elements to implement a third function.