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Virginia Tech

The Design and Implementation of a Spatial Partitioner for use in a Runtime Reconfigurable System

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Microprocessors have difficulties addressing the demands of today's high-performance embedded applications. ASICs are a good solution to the speed concerns, but their cost and time to market can make them impractical for some needs. Configurable Computing Machines (CCMs) provide a cost-effective way of creating custom components; however, oftentimes it would be better if there were a way to change the configuration of the CCM as a program is executing. An efficient way of doing this is with Runtime Reconfigurable (RTR) computing architectures. In an RTR system, one challenging problem is the assignment of operators onto the array of processing elements (PEs) in a way as to simultaneously minimize both the number of PEs used and the number of interconnections between them for each configuration. This job is automated through the use of a software program referred to as the Spatial Partitioner. The design and implementation of the Spatial Partitioner is the subject of this work. The Spatial Partitioner developed herein uses an iterative, recursive algorithm along with cluster refinement to find a reasonably efficient allocation of operators onto the target platform in a reasonable amount of time. Information about the topology of the target platform is used throughout the execution of the algorithm to ensure that the resulting solution is legal in terms of layout.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Science
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Department dc:contributor.department
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
1999

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Moye, Charles David
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Athanas, Peter M.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Nunnally, Charles E.
  • Jones, Mark T.

Subjects

dc:subject × 4

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-080999-085839
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/34445

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Moye, Charles David. The Design and Implementation of a Spatial Partitioner for use in a Runtime Reconfigurable System. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/34445