How to accelerate algorithms by automatically generating FPGA coprocessors

Recent advances in C-to-FPGA design methodologies and tools facilitate the rapid creation of hardware-accelerated embedded systems.

By Glenn Steiner, Kunal Shenoy, Dan Isaacs (Xilinx), and David Pellerin (ImpulseC)

Today's designers are constrained by space, power, and cost, and they simply cannot afford to implement embedded designs with gigahertz-class computers. Fortunately, in embedded systems, the greatest computational requirements are frequently determined by a relatively small number of algorithms. These algorithms, identified through profiling techniques, can be rapidly converted into hardware coprocessors using design automation tools. The coprocessors can then be efficiently interfaced to the offloaded processor, yielding "gigahertz-class" performance.

In this article, we explore code acceleration and techniques for code conversion to hardware coprocessors. We also demonstrate the process for making trade-off decisions with benchmark data through an actual image-rendering case study involving an auxiliary processor unit (APU)-based technique. The design uses an immersed PowerPC implemented in a platform FPGA.

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