An Operating System for Reconfigurable Computers Brandon Hamilton MSc – University of Cape Town Brandon Hamilton MSc – University of Cape Town Supervisor – Prof. Michael Inggs (UCT) Co-supervisors – Dr. Alan Langman (SKA) Dr. Hayden So (HKU) Supervisor – Prof. Michael Inggs (UCT) Co-supervisors – Dr. Alan Langman (SKA) Dr. Hayden So (HKU)

Reconfigurable Computers CPU General Sequential Lower performance ASIC Specific Parallel High performance Programmable logic devices in a system design Hardware-based logic can be changed to perform various tasks FPGA Reconfigurable devices can be configured to provide the best match for the computational requirements at that specific time, giving much better area – speed – power performance.

Reconfigurable Open Architecture Computing Hardware

Benefits of an Operating System Operating System support – File system – Network Familiar to both Software and Hardware engineers Design language independent Operating System support – File system – Network Familiar to both Software and Hardware engineers Design language independent

BORPH B erkeley O perating S ystem for R e P rogrammable H ardware Treats reconfigurable hardware as computational resources UNIX interface to hardware designs Hardware processes B erkeley O perating S ystem for R e P rogrammable H ardware Treats reconfigurable hardware as computational resources UNIX interface to hardware designs Hardware processes

BORPH

Using BORPH Generate BOF file (Simulink toolchain) – Bitstream – User defined hardware constructs Execute BOF process – Configures FPGA – IOREG virtual files Read/Write to user defined hardware constructs Generate BOF file (Simulink toolchain) – Bitstream – User defined hardware constructs Execute BOF process – Configures FPGA – IOREG virtual files Read/Write to user defined hardware constructs

Porting BORPH Port and install bootloader – Das U-Boot Device Specific code – Configuration of FPGA – Interface to FPGA and other hardware IOREG interface to READ/WRITE Update to latest mainstream kernel Adapt Simulink toolchain and system generator Port and install bootloader – Das U-Boot Device Specific code – Configuration of FPGA – Interface to FPGA and other hardware IOREG interface to READ/WRITE Update to latest mainstream kernel Adapt Simulink toolchain and system generator

Further Research Hardware Accelerator model Hardware/Software interface Shared Memory – Memory Access patterns – Cache coherency Hardware Accelerator model Hardware/Software interface Shared Memory – Memory Access patterns – Cache coherency

Thank you References H. K.-H. So and R. Brodersen, "A Unified Hardware/Software Runtime Environment for FPGA-Based Reconfigurable Computers using BORPH," ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems (TECS), Volume 7, Issue 2, Feb, 2008, New York, NY, USA. H. K.-H. So, "Runtime Filesystem Support for Reconfigurable FPGA Hardware Processes in BORPH," In Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual IEEE Symposium on Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machine, Apr References H. K.-H. So and R. Brodersen, "A Unified Hardware/Software Runtime Environment for FPGA-Based Reconfigurable Computers using BORPH," ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems (TECS), Volume 7, Issue 2, Feb, 2008, New York, NY, USA. H. K.-H. So, "Runtime Filesystem Support for Reconfigurable FPGA Hardware Processes in BORPH," In Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual IEEE Symposium on Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machine, Apr