LinROS: A Linux-based Runtime System for Reconfigurable MPSoCs

Modern FPGA-based Multiprocessor Systems-on-Chip (MPSoCs) support dynamic reconfiguration of processing elements (PEs) such as processors and accelerators. The reconfiguration improves the flexibility of the system due to the dynamic and partial exchange of PEs. However, the design of reconfigurable MPSoCs leads also to higher complexity in programming due to the huge design space. To bridge this gap, this paper presents a runtime system consisting of a software layer called LinROS. It dynamically schedules and reconfigures PEs. LinROS uses a novel Linux device driver that automatically manages the software and hardware of the reconfigurable MPSoC at runtime. In addition, an IP core developed for LinROS facilitates an easy hardware integration of PEs using High-Level-Synthesis tools such as VivadoHLS. Data exchange between PEs is managed by the IP core. The entire system is evaluated on a Xilinx Zynq SoC performing image processing algorithms. The results show a negligible overhead of the scheduling while the programming of reconfigurable MPSoCs is significantly simplified by the device driver. Furthermore, the hardware design of PEs is also simplified due to the High-Level Synthesis.