Black-Diamond: a Retargetable Compiler using Graph with Configuration Bits for Dynamically Reconfigurable Architectures

For developing design envionment for various types of Dynamically Reconfigurable Processor Arrays (DRPAs), the GCI (Graph with Configuration Information) is proposed to represent configurable resource in the target dynamically reconfigurable architecture. The function unit, constant unit, register, and routing resource can be represented in the graph as well as the configuration information. The restriction in the hardware is added in the graph by using “DisCounT” port which is limited the possible configuration bits at the port controlled by the other ports. A prototype compiler called Black-Diamond with GCI is now available for three different DRPAs. It translates data-flow graph from C-like front-end description, applies placement and routing by using the GCI, and generates configuration data for each element of the DRPA in the form of multicasting. Implementation results of simple applications show that Black-Diamond can generate reasonable designs for three different architectures.