Title: Runtime reconfigurable interfaces: the RTR-IFB approach

Authors: Stefan Ihmor, Wolfram Hardt

Addresses: Design of Distributet and Embedded Systems, Paderborn University, Fuerstenallee 11, D-33102 Paderborn, Germany. ' Faculty of Computer Science, Chemnitz University of Technology, Strasse der Nationen 62, D-09107 Chemnitz, Germany

Abstract: Next to the implementation of complex applications the inter-module communication constitutes a critical aspect in reconfigurable architectures. Especially, dependencies between reconfigured interacting computation modules in real-time environments lead to massive reconfiguration efforts. We present Runtime Reconfigurable Interface Blocks (RTR-IFB), which tackle the reconfiguration of modules during runtime, the synchronisation and inter-module communication. As one effect reconfigured modules can share the same execution resources without a communication gap. Our RTR-IFB methodology extends actual concepts for inter-module communication and is integrated into the partial reconfiguration design flow. An example from the control domain demonstrates the feasibility of our approach.

Keywords: runtime reconfiguration; RTR; automated interface design; interface blocks; IFB; FPGA; reconfigurable architectures; field programmable gate arrays.

DOI: 10.1504/IJES.2006.010160

International Journal of Embedded Systems, 2006 Vol.2 No.1/2, pp.4 - 15

Published online: 05 Jul 2006 *

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