A holistic approach for tightly coupled reconfigurable parallel processors

New standards in signal, multimedia, and network processing for embedded electronics are characterized by computationally intensive algorithms, high flexibility due to the swift change in specifications. In order to meet demanding challenges of increasing computational requirements and stringent constraints on area and power consumption in fields of embedded engineering, there is a gradual trend towards coarse-grained parallel embedded processors. Furthermore, such processors are enabled with dynamic reconfiguration features for supporting time- and space-multiplexed execution of the algorithms. However, the formidable problem in efficient mapping of applications (mostly loop algorithms) onto such architectures has been a hindrance in their mass acceptance. In this paper we present (a) a highly parameterizable, tightly coupled, and reconfigurable parallel processor architecture together with the corresponding power breakdown and reconfiguration time analysis of a case study application, (b) a retargetable methodology for mapping of loop algorithms, (c) a co-design framework for modeling, simulation, and programming of such architectures, and (d) loosely coupled communication with host processor.