Mapping adaptive hardware systems with partial reconfiguration using CoPR for Zynq

Dynamically adaptive systems respond to environmental conditions by modifying their processing at runtime, selecting alternative configurations of computation. While FPGAs with partial reconfiguration (PR) seem to offer an ideal platform for flexible hardware, designing such systems is difficult, and no standardised model and methodology exists. We present CoPR, a fully automated framework for implementing PR based adaptive hardware systems on the Zynq family of hybrid FPGAs. The designer specifies a set of valid configurations comprising hardware modules. CoPR automates partitioning of modules into regions, floorplanning on the FPGA fabric, and generation of partial bitstreams. The runtime framework offers an abstracted view of system configuration through an API that allows the designer to focus on adaptation software without considering details of the underlying hardware. We present a case-study on the design of a multi-standard adaptive radio system.