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Catalog Description

Cpr E 583. Reconfigurable Computing Systems. (Same as Com S 583.) (3-0) Cr. 3. Prereq: Background in computer architecture, design, and organization. Introduction to reconfigurable computing, FPGA technology and architectures, spatial computing architectures, systolic and bit serial architectures, adaptive network architectures, bus-based and static dynamic rearrangeable interconnection structure architectures, reconfigurable computing architectures for processors.

Course Outline

The emergence of high-capacity reconfigurable devices is spurring a revolution in general-purpose computing. These adaptive computing systems can tailor and dedicate functional units and interconnect to take advantage of application-dependent dataflow. Furthermore, machines have been proposed that dynamically change their configuration with changing data sets and algorithmic needs. The reconfigurability at pipeline level, datapath level and memory level offer an interesting paradigm for general-purpose computing. This course discusses the basic foundations of reconfigurable computing, and its applications in general-purpose computing and adaptive network architectures.

Syllabus

  1. Introduction to Reconfigurable Computing [2 weeks]
    • What is reconfigurable computing and why is it interesting?
    • Computing requirements, area, and VLSI scaling
    • Instructions
    • Introduction to FPGA
    • Custom computing machine overview
    • Comparing computing machines
  2. FPGA Technology and Architectures [3 weeks]
    • LUT devices and mapping
    • ALU design
    • Placement and partitioning algorithms
    • Routing algorithms
    • Commercially-available devices
  3. Spatial Computing Architectures [2 weeks]
    • Systolic architectures and algorithms
    • Systolic structures
    • Bit serial
    • Other spatial styles
  4. Applications [3 weeks]
    • Cryptography
    • Multimedia processing and acceleration
    • Reconfigurable networking
    • FPGA-based supercomputing
  5. FPGA Design [2 weeks]
    • Introduction to VHDL
    • VHDL for synthesis
    • FPGA design tools and methodologies
  6. Other Reconfigurable Computing Architectures [2 weeks]
    • Reconfigurable coprocessor-based architectures
    • Coarse-grained architectures
    • Multi-context architectures