A dynamic instruction set computer

Author

Wirthlin, Michael J. ; Hutchings, Brad L.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Brigham Young Univ., Provo, UT, USA

fYear

1995

fDate

19-21 Apr 1995

Firstpage

99

Lastpage

107

Abstract

A dynamic instruction set computer (DISC) has been developed that supports demand-driven modification of its instruction set. Implemented with partially reconfigurable FPGAs, DISC treats instructions as removable modules paged in and out through partial reconfiguration as demanded by the executing program. Instructions occupy FPGA resources only when needed and FPGA resources can be reused to implement an arbitrary number of performance-enhancing application-specific instructions. DISC further enhances the functional density of FPGAs by physically relocating instruction modules to available FPGA space

Keywords

computer architecture; field programmable gate arrays; instruction sets; reconfigurable architectures; demand-driven modification; dynamic instruction set computer; partially reconfigurable FPGAs; performance-enhancing application-specific instructions; Application specific processors; Computer aided instruction; Equations; Field programmable gate arrays; Flexible printed circuits; Hardware; Instruction sets; Process design; Random access memory; Runtime;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

FPGAs for Custom Computing Machines, 1995. Proceedings. IEEE Symposium on

Conference_Location

Napa Valley, CA

Print_ISBN

0-8186-7548-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/FPGA.1995.477415

Filename

477415