Configuration exploration algorithm for partially reconfigurable architecture

By studying the effect of configuration sequence on the performance of partially reconfigurable system, a configuration space exploration algorithm was proposed to reduce the time of task switch and reconfiguration on partially reconfigurable systems. By partitioning an application into grouped tasks, a task execution model and a cost evaluation function for partially reconfigurable systems were introduced. Based on the similarity of two configurations, the reconfiguration cost between two tasks was determined. According to the reconfiguration cost, a dynamic programming methodology was applied to explore an optimal configuration sequence for a series of tasks. The time complexity of the exploration algorithm is O(nm2), where n is the number of tasks and m is the number of configurations of each task. Results showed that reasonable selection of configurations for a task sequence can effectively improve the performance of partially reconfigurable systems.