A single-chip programmable platform based on a multithreaded processor and configurable logic clusters

This paper presents a single-chip programmable platform that integrates most of hardware blocks required in the design of embedded system chips. The platform includes a 32-bit multithreaded RISC processor (MT-RISC), configurable logic clusters (CLCs), programmable first-in-first-out (FIFO) memories, control circuitry, and on-chip memories. For rapid thread switch, a multithreaded processor equipped with a hardware thread scheduling unit is adopted, and configurable logics are grouped into clusters for IP-based design. By integrating both the multithreaded processor and the configurable logic on a single chip, high-level language-based designs can be easily accommodated by performing the complex and concurrent functions of a target chip on the multithreaded processor and implementing the external interface functions into the configurable logic clusters. A 64-mm² prototype chip integrating a four-threaded MT-RISC, three CLCs, programmable FIFOs, and 8-kB on-chip memories is fabricated in a 0.35-μm CMOS technology with four metal layers, which operates at 100-MHz clock frequency and consumes 370 mW at 3.3-V power supply.