SHAPES:: a tiled scalable software hardware architecture platform for embedded systems

Nanoscale systems on chip will integrate billion-gate designs. The challenge is to find a scalable HW/SW design style for future CMOS technologies. Tiled architectures suggest a possible path: "small" processing tiles connected by "short wires". A typical SHAPES tile contains a VLIW floating-point DSP, a RISC, a DNP (Distributed Network Processor), distributed on chip memory, the POT (a set of Peripherals On Tile) plus an interface for DXM (Distributed External Memory). The SHAPES routing fabric connects on-chip and off-chip tiles, weaving a distributed packet switching network. 3D next-neighbours engineering methodologies is adopted for off-chip networking and maximum system density. The SW challenge is to provide a simple and efficient programming environment for tiled architectures. SHAPES will investigate a layered system software, which does not destroy algorithmic and distribution info provided by the programmer and is fully aware of the HW paradigm. For efficiency and QoS, the system SW manages intra-tile and inter-tile latencies, bandwidths, computing resources, using static and dynamic profiling. The SW accesses the on-chip and off-chip networks through a homogeneous interface.