2007 Reports

Using Functional Independence Conditions to Optimize the Performance of Latency-Insensitive Systems

Li, Cheng-Hong; Carloni, Luca

In latency-insensitive design shell modules are used to encapsulate system components (pearls) in order to interface them with the given latency-insensitive protocol and dynamically control their operations. In particular, a shell stalls a pearl whenever new valid data are not available on its input channels. We study how functional independence conditions (FIC) can be applied to the performance optimization of a latency-insensitive system by avoiding unnecessary stalling of their pearls. We present a novel circuit design of a generic shell template that can exploit FICs. We also provide an automatic procedure for the logic synthesis of a shell instance that is only based on the particular local characteristics of its corresponding pearl and does not require any input from the designers. We conclude reporting on a set of experimental results that illustrate the beneits and overhead of the proposed technique.