Runlength compression techniques for FPGA configurations

The time it takes to reconfigure FPGAs can be a significant overhead for reconfigurable computing. In this paper we develop new compression algorithms for FPGA configurations that can significantly reduce this overhead. By using runlength and other compression techniques, files can be compressed by a factor of 3.6 times. Bus transfer and decompression hardware are also discussed. This results in a single compression methodology which achieves higher compression ratios than existing algorithms in an off-line version, as well as a somewhat lower quality compression approach which is suitable for on-line use in dynamic circuit generation and other mapping-time critical situations.