A dynamically reconfigurable system-on-chip for implementing wireless MACs

This paper presents the architecture of a dynamically reconfigurable platform being developed specially for implementing wireless protocols´ MAC layer for consumer wireless devices. The cornerstone of this architecture is the exploitation of substantial overlaps in the functionality of the three MACs considered. By using function-specific reconfigurable functional units that are based on the overlaps in the MAC functionality, and by using a heterogeneous architecture with restricted flexibility, we have argued that the architecture we have presented will give substantial power-savings over an equivalent FPGA or software implementation.