A Configuration Data Multicasting Method for Coarse-Grained Reconfigurable Architectures

This paper proposes a novel configuration data compression technique for coarse-grained reconfigurable architectures (CGRAs). The proposed technique is based on a multicast configuration technique called RoMultiC, which reduces the configuration time by multicasting the same data to multiple PEs(Processing Elements) with two bit-maps. Scheduling algorithms for an optimizing the order of multicasting have been proposed. In general, configuration data for CGRAs can be divided into some fields like machine code formats. The proposed scheme confines a part of fields for multicasting so that the possibility of multicasting more PEs can be increased. This paper analyzes algorithms to find a configuration pattern which maximizes the number of multicasted PEs. We implemented the proposed scheme to CMA (Cool Mega Array), a straight forward CGRA as a case study. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves 40.0% smaller configuration for an image processing application at maximum. Furthermore, it achieves 35.6% reduction of the power consumption for the configuration with a negligible area overhead.