On the reduction of the programming cost of soft switches for reconfigurable two-dimensional arrays

Methods for reducing the cost involved in the programming of nonpermanent (soft) switching elements in an augmented interconnection network for reconfigurable two-dimensional arrays are considered. The proposed approach is based on an optimised execution of the disjoint tree programming technique proposed by Boubekeur et al. Reduction in cost is analysed with respect to either the sequential or parallel execution of the programming process for the soft switches of the array. The formulation and characterization of two different figures for evaluating the cost of switch programming, are given with respect to a global reduction (rather than heuristically as in previous approaches).