High-Level Resource Binding and Allocation for Power and Performance Optimization

Cromar, Scott A.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/11971 Copy

Description

Title

High-Level Resource Binding and Allocation for Power and Performance Optimization

Author(s)

Cromar, Scott A.

Issue Date

2009-06-01T16:04:58Z

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Chen, Deming

Department of Study

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Discipline

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.S.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• Field-programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA)
• behavioral synthesis
• glitch power
• power reduction
• high-level synthesis
• process variation
• low power

Abstract

While technology scaling has presented many new and exciting opportunities, new design challenges have arisen. Smaller feature sizes have led to increased density and large variations in the delay and power characteristics of on-chip devices. Additionally, with the increasing desirability of low-power chips, decreasing power consumption has become a significant priority. Major sources of dynamic power consumption in modern chips include glitches (i.e., spurious signal transitions), the reduction of which are challenges to circuit designers. High-level synthesis has been touted as a solution to these problems, as it can both significantly reduce the number of man hours required for a circuit design, and offer greater opportunities for optimization of design goals, by raising the level of abstraction. In this thesis, we present two resource binding and allocation algorithms that take advantage of the optimization opportunities available at the higher level of abstraction. The first is a new variation-aware high-level synthesis binding and module selection algorithm, named FastYield, which takes into consideration multiplexers, functional units, registers, and interconnects. FastYield connects with the lower levels of the design hierarchy through its inclusion of a timing-driven floorplanner guided by a statistical static timing analysis engine which is used to modify and enhance the synthesis solution. FastYield is able to incorporate spatial correlations of process variations in its optimization, which are shown to affect performance yield. FastYield is shown to achieve a significant reduction in clock period, and significant gain in performance yield, when compared to a variation-unaware and layout-unaware algorithm. The second is a glitch-aware, high-level binding algorithm for power, area, and multiplexer reduction targeting field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), called HLPower. HLPower employs a glitch-aware dynamic power estimation technique derived from an FPGA technology mapper. High-level binding results are converted to VHSIC hardware description language (VHDL), and synthesized with Altera’s Quartus II software, targeting the Cyclone II FPGA architecture. Power characteristics are evaluated with the Altera PowerPlay Power Analyzer. The binding results of HLPower are compared to LOPASS, a state-of-the-art low-power high-level synthesis algorithm for FPGAs. Experimental results show that HLPower significantly reduces toggle rate and area, resulting in a large decrease in dynamic power consumption.

Graduation Semester

2009-5

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/11971

Copyright and License Information

Part of this thesis includes previously published work. © 2009 IEEE. Reprinted, with permission, from G. Lucas, S. Cromar, and D. Chen, “FastYield: Variation-aware, layout-driven simultaneous binding and module selection for performance yield optimization,” in Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE/ACM Asia South Pacific Design Automation Conference, 2009. This material is posted here with permission of the IEEE. Such permission of the IEEE does not in any way imply IEEE endorsement of any of the University of Illinois’ products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to pubs-permissions@ieee.org.

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