Title :
Bitfile preservation - Generation of reusable out of context modules
Author :
Stullein, Christian ; Abel, Norbert ; Kebschull, Udo
Author_Institution :
Infrastruct. & Comput. Syst. for Data Process. (IRI), Goethe Univ., Frankfurt/Main, Germany
Abstract :
This paper presents the idea of bitfile preservation which enables the re-use of partial bitfiles in different environments and at different positions of the FPGA without any re-compilation. This way, the behaviour of a system can be changed on the fly just by plugging together different pre-compiled modules (represented by partial bitfiles). These modules can be developed without any knowledge of the final surrounding system. They may even be provided by third-party vendors as closed-source components. Current implementations demonstrate that it is possible to enhance the standard partial reconfiguration vendor flow in a way that enables bitfile preservation. Moreover, the already established cooperations prove that bitfile preservation is highly relevant for contemporary FPGA industry.
Keywords :
field programmable gate arrays; logic design; FPGA; bitfile preservation; partial bitfile reuse; precompiled module; reusable out of context module; standard partial reconfiguration vendor flow; Fabrics; Field programmable gate arrays; Loading; Registers; Routing; Standards; Timing;
Conference_Titel :
Reconfigurable and Communication-Centric Systems-on-Chip (ReCoSoC), 2013 8th International Workshop on
Conference_Location :
Darmstadt
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4673-6180-4
DOI :
10.1109/ReCoSoC.2013.6581544