15-11-2012, 02:09 PM
chameleon chip
[attachment=39592]
INTRODUCTION
Today's microprocessors sport a general-purpose design i.e. one chip can run a range of programs. That's why you don't need separate computers for different jobs but for any one application, much of the chip's circuitry isn't needed, and the presence of those "wasted" circuits slows things down.
Suppose, instead, that the chip's circuits could be tailored specifically for the problem at hand like one set of chips, little bigger than a credit card, could do almost anything, even changing into a wireless phone. The market for such versatile marvels would be huge, and would translate into lower costs for users.
So computer scientists are hatching a novel concept i.e. “The chameleon chip” that could increase number-crunching power--and trim costs. Chameleon chips would be an extension of what can already be done with field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAS).
The chips still won't change colors. But they may well color the way we use computers in years to come. It is a fusion between custom integrated circuits and programmable logic. In the case when we are doing highly performance oriented tasks custom chips that do one or two things spectacularly rather than lot of things averagely is used. Now using field programmed chips we have chips that can be rewired in an instant. .
The new chips can be called a "chip on demand." In practical terms, this ability can translate to immense flexibility in terms of device functions. For example, a single device could serve as both a camera and a tape recorder (among numerous other possibilities): you would simply download the desired software and the processor would reconfigure itself to optimize performance for that function.
CHAMELEON CHIPS
Highly flexible processors that can be reconfigured remotely in the field, Chameleon's chips are designed to simplify communication system design while delivering increased price/performance numbers. The chameleon chip is a high bandwidth reconfigurable communications processor (RCP). It aims at changing a system's design from a remote location. This will mean more versatile handhelds. Processors operate at 24,000 16-bit million operations per second (MOPS), 3,000 16-bit million multiply-accumulates per second (MMACS), and provide 50 channels of CDMA2000 chip-rate processing. The 0.25-micron chip, the CS2112 is an example.
These new chips are able to rewire themselves on the fly to create the exact hardware needed to run a piece of software at the utmost speed an example of such kind of a chip is a chameleon chip. This can also be called a “chip on demand”.
The overall performance of the ACM can surpass the DSP because the ACM only constructs the actual hardware needed to execute the software, whereas DSPs and microprocessors force the software to fit its given architecture.
One reason that this type of versatility is not possible today is that handheld gadgets are typically built around highly optimized specialty chips that do one thing really well. These chips are fast and relatively cheap, but their circuits are literally written in stone or silicon. A multipurpose gadget would have to have many specialized chips -- a costly and clumsy solution. Alternately, you could use a general-purpose microprocessor, like the one in your PC, but that would be slow as well as expensive. For these reasons, chip designers are turning increasingly to reconfigurable hardware—integrated circuits where the architecture of the internal logic elements can be arranged and rearranged on the fly to fit particular applications.
Designers of multimedia systems face three significant challenges in today's ultra-competitive marketplace: Our products must do more, cost less, and be brought to the market quicker than ever. Though each of these goals is individually attainable, the hat trick is generally unachievable with traditional design and implementation techniques. Fortunately, some new techniques are emerging from the study of reconfigurable computing that make it possible to design systems that satisfy all three requirements simultaneously.
Although originally proposed in the late 1960s by a researcher at UCLA, reconfigurable computing is a relatively new field of study. The decades-long delay had mostly to do with a lack of acceptable reconfigurable hardware. Reprogrammable logic chips like field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) have been around for many years, but these chips have only recently reached gate densities making them suitable for high-end applications. (The densest of the current FPGAs have approximately 100,000 reprogrammable logic gates.) With an anticipated doubling of gate densities every 18 months, the situation will only become more favorable from this point forward.
FPGA
One of the most promising approaches in the realm of reconfigurable architecture is a technology called "field-programmable gate arrays." The strategy is to build uniform arrays of thousands of logic elements, each of which can take on the personality of different, fundamental components of digital circuitry; the switches and wires can be reprogrammed to operate in any desired pattern, effectively rewiring a chip's circuitry on demand. A designer can download a new wiring pattern and store it in the chip's memory, where it can be easily accessed when needed.
Not so hard after all Reconfigurable hardware first became practical with the introduction a few years ago of a device called a “field-programmable gate array” (FPGA) by Xilinx, an electronics company that is now based in San Jose, California. An FPGA is a chip consisting of a large number of “logic cells”. These cells, in turn, are sets of transistors wired together to perform simple logical operations.
[attachment=39592]
INTRODUCTION
Today's microprocessors sport a general-purpose design i.e. one chip can run a range of programs. That's why you don't need separate computers for different jobs but for any one application, much of the chip's circuitry isn't needed, and the presence of those "wasted" circuits slows things down.
Suppose, instead, that the chip's circuits could be tailored specifically for the problem at hand like one set of chips, little bigger than a credit card, could do almost anything, even changing into a wireless phone. The market for such versatile marvels would be huge, and would translate into lower costs for users.
So computer scientists are hatching a novel concept i.e. “The chameleon chip” that could increase number-crunching power--and trim costs. Chameleon chips would be an extension of what can already be done with field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAS).
The chips still won't change colors. But they may well color the way we use computers in years to come. It is a fusion between custom integrated circuits and programmable logic. In the case when we are doing highly performance oriented tasks custom chips that do one or two things spectacularly rather than lot of things averagely is used. Now using field programmed chips we have chips that can be rewired in an instant. .
The new chips can be called a "chip on demand." In practical terms, this ability can translate to immense flexibility in terms of device functions. For example, a single device could serve as both a camera and a tape recorder (among numerous other possibilities): you would simply download the desired software and the processor would reconfigure itself to optimize performance for that function.
CHAMELEON CHIPS
Highly flexible processors that can be reconfigured remotely in the field, Chameleon's chips are designed to simplify communication system design while delivering increased price/performance numbers. The chameleon chip is a high bandwidth reconfigurable communications processor (RCP). It aims at changing a system's design from a remote location. This will mean more versatile handhelds. Processors operate at 24,000 16-bit million operations per second (MOPS), 3,000 16-bit million multiply-accumulates per second (MMACS), and provide 50 channels of CDMA2000 chip-rate processing. The 0.25-micron chip, the CS2112 is an example.
These new chips are able to rewire themselves on the fly to create the exact hardware needed to run a piece of software at the utmost speed an example of such kind of a chip is a chameleon chip. This can also be called a “chip on demand”.
The overall performance of the ACM can surpass the DSP because the ACM only constructs the actual hardware needed to execute the software, whereas DSPs and microprocessors force the software to fit its given architecture.
One reason that this type of versatility is not possible today is that handheld gadgets are typically built around highly optimized specialty chips that do one thing really well. These chips are fast and relatively cheap, but their circuits are literally written in stone or silicon. A multipurpose gadget would have to have many specialized chips -- a costly and clumsy solution. Alternately, you could use a general-purpose microprocessor, like the one in your PC, but that would be slow as well as expensive. For these reasons, chip designers are turning increasingly to reconfigurable hardware—integrated circuits where the architecture of the internal logic elements can be arranged and rearranged on the fly to fit particular applications.
Designers of multimedia systems face three significant challenges in today's ultra-competitive marketplace: Our products must do more, cost less, and be brought to the market quicker than ever. Though each of these goals is individually attainable, the hat trick is generally unachievable with traditional design and implementation techniques. Fortunately, some new techniques are emerging from the study of reconfigurable computing that make it possible to design systems that satisfy all three requirements simultaneously.
Although originally proposed in the late 1960s by a researcher at UCLA, reconfigurable computing is a relatively new field of study. The decades-long delay had mostly to do with a lack of acceptable reconfigurable hardware. Reprogrammable logic chips like field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) have been around for many years, but these chips have only recently reached gate densities making them suitable for high-end applications. (The densest of the current FPGAs have approximately 100,000 reprogrammable logic gates.) With an anticipated doubling of gate densities every 18 months, the situation will only become more favorable from this point forward.
FPGA
One of the most promising approaches in the realm of reconfigurable architecture is a technology called "field-programmable gate arrays." The strategy is to build uniform arrays of thousands of logic elements, each of which can take on the personality of different, fundamental components of digital circuitry; the switches and wires can be reprogrammed to operate in any desired pattern, effectively rewiring a chip's circuitry on demand. A designer can download a new wiring pattern and store it in the chip's memory, where it can be easily accessed when needed.
Not so hard after all Reconfigurable hardware first became practical with the introduction a few years ago of a device called a “field-programmable gate array” (FPGA) by Xilinx, an electronics company that is now based in San Jose, California. An FPGA is a chip consisting of a large number of “logic cells”. These cells, in turn, are sets of transistors wired together to perform simple logical operations.