1 / 16

XStream: Rapid Generation of Custom Processors for ASIC Designs

XStream: Rapid Generation of Custom Processors for ASIC Designs. Binu Mathew. * ASIC: Application Specific Integrated Circuit. Logical Design is the Primary Cost Barrier in ASIC Design. Spec. Chip. Logical Design. Physical Design. Fabrication. 15 months, 10 designers. 2 months,

mikkel
Download Presentation

XStream: Rapid Generation of Custom Processors for ASIC Designs

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. XStream: Rapid Generation of Custom Processorsfor ASIC Designs Binu Mathew * ASIC: Application Specific Integrated Circuit

  2. Logical Design is the Primary Cost Barrier in ASIC Design Spec Chip Logical Design Physical Design Fabrication 15 months, 10 designers 2 months, ASIC vendor’s fabrication facility 2 months, 2 layout engineers 80% of cost 20% of cost • Time to market is critical

  3. The Business Opportunity • 11,000 ASIC designs in year 2000 (DataQuest) • Average team: 10 designers, 15 months/design (Collett) • Design cost: $33B, mostly salaries • ECAE revenue forecast, 2004: $1.88B (Gartner) • Per person, per year, license • Volume royalties • Customisation and training contracts

  4. The XStream Technology • Very high performance custom processors replace ASIC modules • Reduce design time for stream oriented ASIC modules by 95% • Retain 40-90% of ASIC performance • Software replaces hardware design • Software prototype already exists • Flexible, fast bug fixes, feature upgrades • Share chip across product family

  5. Usage Scenario: MPEG Encoder

  6. Usage Scenario: MPEG Encoder

  7. Usage Scenario: MPEG Encoder Software (C Benchmarks) 3-10 HDL Option Cost/Benefit report XStream CAD Suite Performance, area, power specifications Flexibility requirement

  8. XStream: Unique Technology • Performance • Pattern accelerators • Do restricted domains extremely well • Fall back to traditional methods • Reactive Threads • Fast response to events like in custom circuits • Compiler controlled data flow • Mimics custom circuits • Power efficiency • Compiler controlled clock gating

  9. Competitive Comparison Easier Development Better Performance

  10. Summary • Reduce a large fraction of the $33B/year ASIC design cost: • Replace ASIC modules with XStream processor + Software • 95% time savings for many ASIC modules • 159x energy reduction compared to embedded CPUs • Flexibility • Easy to do bug fixes late in product cycle • Platform ASICs shared across product family

  11. Blank Slide

  12. Competitive Comparison

  13. Usage Scenario – Showing Benefit • Reduce design time for stream oriented ASIC modules by 95% • Retain 40-90% of ASIC performance • 159x energy advantage over general purpose processor • 175% performance of high performance CPU

  14. Back-up Slides • Data validating different claims

  15. Competitive Comparison

  16. Usage Scenario: Camera Phone Flash Memory Camera Control CPU MPEG Encoder User Interface CPU Screen Wireless Module Antenna Much more stuff Much much more stuff Speaker Microphone System on Chip (SOC)

More Related