Low-cost fully reconfigurable data-path for FPGA-based multimedia processor

This paper describes novel data-path architecture for FPGA-based multimedia processors. The proposed circuit can adapt itself at run-time to different operations and data wordlengths avoiding time and power consuming reconfiguration. The new data-path can operate in SIMD fashion and guarantees high parallelism levels when operations on lower precisions are executed. It also supports IEEE-754 compliant single precision floating-point addition and multiplication. The proposed circuit has been characterized using VIRTEXII XILINX devices, but it can be efficiently used also in other FPGA families.