Placement for the reconfigurable datapath architecture

A reconfigurable computing (RC) machine can be configured to execute various functions. An RC machine is composed of a host computer and a reconfigurable processing unit. A reconfigurable hardware, called reconfigurable datapath architecture (rDPA), was presented by the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany. The rDPA is designed for the evaluation of any arithmetic or logic expression from a high level description. We present an algorithm to compile a given program into a configuration that can be embedded on an rDPA. The arithmetic expressions in a program are represented by a data flow graph (DFG) in which a vertex represents an operator and an edge represented a data flow between two vertices. The placement step assigns a processing unit in the rDPA to implement a vertex in the DFG. Our strategy is to find a spanning tree in a DFG and route the interconnections corresponding to tree edges through abutment. The remaining is routed through the global interconnect. The algorithm produces a placement in O(|V|/sup 2/) time.