Embedded compilation for multimedia applications

Reconfigurable computing obtains its performance advantage over fixed processors by creating hardware configurations that are specialized for a particular application. In some cases, this advantage can be pushed even further, by creating hardware specialized to a particular instance of an application. For many problems where this approach is applicable, such as automatic target recognition, template matching and encryption, the problem parameters can change often, even within a single program execution, requiring periodic, and potentially expensive, hardware reconfigurations. To support these applications, we propose a method for on-chip configuration generation, or embedded compilation, for use with Carnegie Mellon University's PipeRench reconfigurable processor. We describe PipeRench's performance in detail for one problem, template matching, relative to the newest general-purpose processors, and show how embedded compilation can be used to support multiple problem instances for a second problem, IDEA encryption.