Customizable Embedded Processors: Design Technologies and Applications

Description

Customizable processors have been described as the next natural step in the evolution of the microprocessor business: a step in the life of a new technology where top performance alone is no longer sufficient to guarantee market success. Other factors become fundamental, such as time to market, convenience, energy efficiency, and ease of customization. This book is the first to explore comprehensively one of the most fundamental trends which emerged in the last decade: to treat processors not as rigid, fixed entities, which designers include ?as is? in their products; but rather, to build sound methodologies to tailor-fit processors to the specific needs of such products. This book addresses the goal of maintaining a very large family of processors, with a wide range of features, at a cost comparable to that of maintaining a single processor.

 

Introduction Business Opportunities: The Case of Wireless Applications Logistic Challenges: Lofty Ambitions and Stark Realities of Customizing Processors Architectural Description Languages Retargetable Toolsets Processor Configuration Automatic Instruction-Set Extensions Challenges to Automatic Customization Toolset Support for Instruction-Set Extensions Coprocessor Generation from Executable Code Datapath Synthesis Instruction Matching and Modelling Processor Verification Sub-RISC Processors An ASIP for UMTS-FDD Cell Search Hardware/software Trade-offs for Advanced 3G Channel Decoding FPGA-Based Processor Implementation Designing a H.264 Encoder with Real-World Tradeoffs