On-Chip Communication in Run-Time Assembled Reconfigurable Systems

Embedded systems in Field-Programmable Gate Arrays can be customised and adaptive if assembled from modular components at run time. This paper describes techniques for modelling inter-module channel behaviour based on statistical time division multiplexing. Where modules communicate over shared media, the proposed techniques enable systematic development of on-chip communication infrastructure to support run-time instantiation of components. Our techniques also allow system designers to guarantee that logical communication requirements between the adjunct modules can be satisfied by the infrastructure. An in-depth analysis is presented, and then verified with cycle-accurate simulations for the Sonic-on-chip reconfigurable platform for real-time video applications.