A Flexible and General Solution for Reconfiguring Pipeline Computing Systems

Abstract: The pipeline architectural concept ensures great speed for computing systems but its important disadvantages are the lack of flexibility and low fault tolerance. One way for minimizing these disadvantages which ensures optimum power consumption too for a specific application is its reconfiguration. The paper presents a flexible and general solution for reconfiguring pipeline computing systems which allows the reconfiguration at the device level or at the system level. After presenting the pipeline concept and its specific features, the new solution is described. It is based on introducing programmable hardware at every pipeline station which allows tailoring the optimal pipeline architecture for a specific application. The programmability of this hardware is simple and fast. Some examples are used which show how to reconfigure pipeline computing systems with four stations but they can be extended for any number of stations. The new solution is described in 2 variants: one with maximum flexibility but which is more complex too and one simpler but with a reduced flexibility. Key words: pipeline computing systems, partial reconfiguration, total reconfiguratio