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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/L98909/01
Title: RE-CONFIGURABLE FPGA CIRCUITS FOR CUSTOM COMPUTING APPLICATIONS
Principal Investigator: Woods, Professor RF
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)
Department: Sch of Electronics, Elec Eng & Comp Sci
Organisation: Queen's University of Belfast
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 01 October 1998 Ends: 31 January 2002 Value (£): 186,745
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
VLSI Design
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Electronics
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
An alternative approach to microprocessor based computing has been proposed called custom computing. This involves customising hardware implementations of algorithms on programmable hardware typically FGPAs which offer superior performance to microprocessor solutions in many instances. The development of the XC6200 technology by the Xilinx Development Corporation has led to a new form of custom computing where hardware can be reconfigured 'on the fly' or during run-time. If this 'run time reconfiguration' is to be achieved in practice, then methods are needed to reduce the reconfiguration time and synthesis tools are required to produce FPGA circuits quickly. In this proposal, we present a method for developing FGPA circuits that are re-configurable by design. This is achieved by developing the circuits at high level to meet not only area and speed requirements but also a reconfiguration specification. Our proposal shows that it is possible to derive similar circuit architectures for vastly different functions by developing designs at the Signal Flow Graph level. In addition, an architectural synthesis route for quickly generating the FGPA circuits from these architectures will be developed. The work will be carried out in close collaboration with the Xilinx and Prof S Y Kung from Princeton.
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Organisation Website: http://www.qub.ac.uk