PRADA: a high-performance reconfigurable parallel architecture based on the dataflow model

This work proposes and implements a reconfigurable parallel architecture based on dataflow for numerical computation, named PRADA. This architecture uses concepts of parallel processing to obtain a scalable performance and the dataflow concept for controlling the parallel execution of instructions. PRADA is composed by a control unit and several processing elements (PEs). In the control unit, there are several functional blocks, including data and instruction memories. Each PE is composed by an ALU and buffers. PRADA is organised as a cluster, in which several independent dataflow modules are interconnected together. PRADA was developed in VHDL and implemented in reconfigurable hardware using a FPGA device. Therefore, it can offer high performance, scalability and customised solutions for engineering problems. Results of the application of PRADA to the computation of a digital filter and a cryptography algorithm are presented. Results are also compared with other different architectures, such as microprocessors, ASICs, DSPs, reconfigurable architectures and dataflow architectures. In most cases, PRADA achieved either competitive or higher performance than the other architectures, regarding the measures used. Overall results suggest that this architecture can be applied to several classes of problems that may require a high throughput, such as cryptography, optimisation and scientific computing.