A Reconfigurable Design Framework for FPGA Adaptive Computing

Partial reconfiguration (PR) offers the possibility to adaptively change part of the FPGA design without stopping the remaining system. In this paper, we present a comprehensive framework for adaptive computing, in which design key points of hardware processes, system interconnections, operating systems (OS), device drivers, scheduler software as well as context switching are respectively concerned in different hardware/software layers. A case study is discussed to demonstrate an example of swapping a Flash memory controller and an SRAM controller in response to diverse memory access needs. Result analysis reveals a more efficient resource utilization of 52.1% I/O pads, 86.5% LUTs and 81.3% Flip-Flops, when compared to the static design with same functionalities. A small reconfiguration overhead of context switching is measured within the range from hundreds of microseconds to milliseconds. Moreover, technical perspectives are analyzed and it is foreseen to obtain great benefits with the proposed design framework in object applications of particle physics experiments.