Design of multi-tasking coprocessor control for Eclipse

Eclipse defines a heterogeneous multiprocessor architecture template for data-dependent stream processing. Intended as a scalable and flexible subsystem of forthcoming media-processing systems-on-a-chip, Eclipse combines application configuration flexibility with the efficiency of function-specific hardware, or coprocessors. To facilitate reuse, Eclipse separates coprocessor functionality from generic support that addresses multi-tasking, inter-task synchronization, and data transport. Five interface primitives accomplish this separation. The interface facilitates the design of coprocessors that require complex control to handle data-dependent I/O, saving/restoring task state upon task switches, and pipelined processing. This paper presents how this interface enables the design of such reusable yet cost-effective coprocessors.