A heterogeneous modules interconnection architecture for FPGA-based partial dynamic reconfiguration

This paper proposes and analyzes a novel FPGA-based System-on-Chip (SoC) module interconnection architecture called the Morphing Crossbar, which enables time-efficient partial dynamic reconfiguration of embedded systems built with programmable logic. By combining local Crossbar and its companion peripheral interconnection bus, the Morphing Bus, compact embedded systems can be developed with both static and dynamic reconfigurability. The Morphing Crossbar decreases the overhead of interconnection and remapping by allowing the system components to be modularized into relocatable modules. This method increases the flexibility of dynamic partial reconfigurable system. The Morphing Crossbar, which allows adding, removing, or swapping module blocks inside the system on the fly, was implemented on the Xilinx Virtex-5 architecture. Our experimental results demonstrate that by using Morphing Crossbar, adding, removing, and swapping modules can be performed 3.6 times faster compared to architectures without Morphing Crossbar.