SGER: A Virtual Target For Next Generation Hardware Accelerated Multi-Core Systems

多年来，微处理器供应商为处理器提供了越来越快的时钟速度，确保了市场上嵌入式产品数量的持续增长。这些嵌入式产品对生活质量产生了深刻的影响。如今，由于物理设计挑战，业界发现自己正处于一个转折点，重点从单处理器核心转向使用现场可编程门阵列(FGA)作为加速计算应用程序的手段的多核系统。为了从这些新的计算平台获得所需的性能，设计人员正在遵循特定于平台的编程和编译实践。这些做法产生了不可移植的代码，并违反了功能与架构干净分离的原则，降低了开发人员、工具供应商和架构提供商之间的互操作性。计划中的研究是对一个带有FPGA Fabric的多核系统进行虚拟化，类似于Java VM等虚拟机的概念，为复杂嵌入式软件的设计和验证提供了抽象和通用的基础。该研究旨在探索和定义一个向软件子系统提供硬件抽象视图的参数虚拟化层，并研究配置检查点/回滚和源代码级调试支持技术。虚拟平台将加强和支持分布式软件、操作系统、编译器、片上综合、设备配置、调试、有源电源管理和FPGA/微处理器设计方面的研究。它将作为讲堂中和学生手中的重要工具，允许他们探索、定义和完善未来的设计范例。

For years, microprocessor vendors have supplied processors with increasingly faster clock speeds, ensuring the continued growth in the number of embedded products on the market. These embedded products have had a profound impact on the quality of life. Today, and as a result of physical design challenges, the industry finds itself at a turning point, with a shift of emphasis from single-processor core to multi-core systems using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) as means to accelerate compute-bound applications.To obtain desired performance from these new compute platforms, designers are following platform-specific programming and compilation practices. These practices yield non-portable code, and violate the principle of clean separation of function from architecture, reducing the degree of interoperability among developers, tool vendors, and architecture providers.The planned research of virtualizing a multi-core system augmented with FPGA fabric, akin to the concept of virtual machines such as Java VM, provides an abstract and universal underpinning for design and verification of complex embedded software. The research aims to explore and define a parametric virtualization layer providing an abstract view of hardware to the software subsystem and study technologies for configuration checkpointing/rollback and source level debugging support.A virtual platform will enhance and enable research in distributed software, operating systems, compilers, on-chip synthesis, device configuration, debugging, active power management, and FPGA/microprocessor design. It will serve as an important tool in the lecture room and in the hands of students, allowing them to explore, define, and refine the design paradigms of the future.