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Configuration scheduling for conditional branch execution onto multi-context reconfigurable architectures

Abstract:

This paper addresses the exploitation of the capabilities of multi-context reconfigurable architectures to handle a variety of interactive multimedia services. One of the main features of these applications is their changing behavior depending on the runtime scenario, turning the configuration management into a key point. In this work, a configuration scheduler for these applications is proposed. We describe the target applications at a task (kernel) granularity by using data flow graphs in which some kernels are conditionally executed depending on runtime conditions. After testing a condition that decides the next kernel to be executed, its corresponding configurations and input data should be loaded into the on-chip memory before its execution starts, producing a computation stall. Our configuration scheduler minimizes these computation stalls and reduces the application's latency by loading configurations before they are needed. Experimental results obtained for interactive and synthetic applications meet their real-time constraints. © 2006 IEEE.