A novel methodology for designing high-performance and low-power FPGA interconnection targeting DSP applications

The novel design of an efficient FPGA interconnection architecture with multiple switch boxes (SB) for realizing data intensive applications (i.e. DSP applications), is introduced. For that purpose, after exhaustive exploration, we modify the routing architecture through efficient selection of the appropriate switch box, taking into account the statistical and spatial routing restrictions of DSP applications mapped onto FPGA. More specifically, we propose a new technique for selecting the appropriate combination of switch boxes, depending on the localized performance and power consumption requirements of each specific region of FPGA architecture. In order to perform the mapping, we developed a novel algorithm, which takes into account the modified architectural routing features. This algorithm was implemented within a new tool called EX-VPR. Using a number of DSP applications, extensive comparison study of various combinations of switch boxes in terms of total power consumption and performance prove the effectiveness of the proposed approach