JP6824806B2 - Management device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to managing the implementation of circuit modules in reconfigurable electronic device resources.

By mounting a circuit module on a programmable logic device such as an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), it is possible to easily add functions and fix bugs of the circuit module. It has also been proposed to use time-sharing logical devices with reconfigurable resources in multiple different circuit modules.

Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for shortening the reconstruction time of a reconfigurable logic circuit. Specifically, Patent Document 1 holds the difference circuit information between the logic circuit A and the logic circuit B, and uses the difference circuit information when the logic circuit B is reconstructed after the logic circuit A is reconstructed. The technology is disclosed.

JP-A-2009-123129

The circuit module mounted on the reconfigurable resource may be deleted once in the middle of the process, and then the circuit module may be remounted to restart the process. In this case, the internal state of the circuit module is initialized and implemented. Therefore, there may be a waiting time for reproducing the internal state immediately before the circuit module is deleted between the time when the circuit module is mounted and the time when the processing can be appropriately restarted. For example, if the process to be restarted is an operation that requires the past output value of the circuit module, the process is appropriately restarted unless the operation immediately before the circuit module is deleted is re-executed. It is not possible. If this waiting time becomes long, problems such as delay in restarting the processing by the circuit module, the circuit module occupying the resource for a long period of time, and the period during which the circuit module can execute the processing become short.

An object of the present invention is to reduce the waiting time for the circuit module mounted on the reconfigurable electronic device resource to resume the interrupted processing.

According to one aspect of the present invention, the management device includes a parameter management unit and a parameter adjustment unit. The parameter management unit is used in the first processing performed by the first circuit module before the first circuit module implemented in the first area of the reconfigurable electronic device resource is deleted from the resource. The first parameter to be generated is saved in the storage unit. The parameter adjustment unit is stored in the storage unit when the second circuit module associated with the first processing is mounted in the second area of the resource for resuming the first processing. Adjust the parameters to get the second parameter. The parameter management unit sets the second parameter in the second circuit module mounted in the second area for resuming the first process.

According to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the waiting time for the circuit module mounted on the reconfigurable electronic device resource to resume the interrupted processing.

The block diagram which illustrates the reconfiguring management apparatus which concerns on 1st Embodiment. The block diagram which illustrates the periphery of the reconfiguring management apparatus of FIG. A timing chart showing changes over time between the circuit module mounted in the resource area of FIG. 2 and the parameters stored in the parameter storage unit. The figure which exemplifies an infinite impulse response (IIR: Infinity Impulse Response) filter. The figure which shows another example of the IIR filter. Explanatory drawing of the parameter saving example. Explanatory drawing of the parameter return example. Explanatory drawing of the parameter return example.

Hereinafter, embodiments will be described with reference to the drawings. Hereinafter, elements that are the same as or similar to the elements described will be designated by the same or similar reference numerals, and duplicate explanations will be basically omitted.

(First Embodiment)
The reconfiguring management device 100 according to the first embodiment may be a circuit stacked in the (semiconductor) integrated circuit 200, for example, as shown in FIG. In the example of FIG. 2, in addition to the reconfiguring management device 100, the integrated circuit 200 includes an application execution unit 210, a reconfigurable electronic device resource 220, and a parameter storage unit 230, which has a hardware configuration. It's just an example.

The reconfiguring management device 100 mounts a circuit module (writes circuit data) in any of a plurality of (reconfiguring) areas of the reconfigurable electronic device resource 220 in response to a request from the application execution unit 210. .. The reconfiguring management device 100 can read circuit data for mounting a desired circuit module in an area from the configuration ROM (Read Only Memory) 240. Further, the reconfiguring management device 100 deletes the circuit module mounted in the area of the resource 220 as necessary. Here, the deletion of a circuit module means a process of discarding an old circuit module and freeing an area for rewriting the circuit module. The reconfiguring management device 100 manages whether or not each area is in a rewritable state (may be deleted), and the area for rewriting the circuit module can be appropriately selected. The reconfiguring management device 100 notifies the application execution unit 210 that the implementation of the circuit module requested by the application execution unit 210 has been completed normally / has not been completed normally. The application execution unit 210 performs an operation specified by the running application software according to the notified implementation result of the circuit module.

Further, as will be described later, the reconfiguring management device 100 saves the parameters used in the processing performed by the circuit module in the parameter storage unit 230 before deleting the circuit module from the area of the resource 220, or the reconfiguring management device 100. When the circuit module associated with the process is mounted in the area of resource 220 in order to restart the process, the parameters saved in the past are set in the circuit module (such process is also called parameter return). .. The circuit module implemented to resume the process may be the same as the circuit module deleted due to the interruption of the process, or may be different as described below. Here, the parameter refers to the information inside the circuit module to be deleted. If the circuit module mounted to restart the process cannot use the saved parameters as they are, the reconfiguring management device 100 adjusts the parameters.

It should be noted that the saving / returning of the parameters can be omitted under certain conditions. That is, if the waiting time from the mounting of the circuit module to the resumption of processing by the circuit module is not shortened even if the parameters are saved / restored, or if it is not necessary to reduce the waiting time, the parameters are saved / restored. Return may be omitted.

As a circuit module in which the waiting time is shortened by saving / returning parameters, for example, a circuit provided with an output feedback path can be mentioned. Specifically, a (digital) IIR filter, a PID (Proportional Integral Differential) control circuit, and the like include an output feedback path. When the processing by the circuit module corresponding to the circuit provided with such an output feedback path is interrupted, the waiting time can be shortened by saving / restoring the parameters.

An example of the IIR filter is shown in FIG. In the following description, the IIR filter 300 of FIG. 4 may be referred to as a circuit (module) A. The IIR filter 300 includes an adder 301, a register 311 and a register 312, a coefficient register 321 and a coefficient register 322, a multiplier 331, and a multiplier 332. The IIR filter 300 uses, for example, a 16-bit width. That is, all the signals handled by the IIR filter 300 are 16 bits.

Register 311 stores the previous output value (of the IIR filter 300). Register 312 stores the output value of the previous two. Registers (not shown) may be prepared to store the output values of three or more previous ones. In the IIR filter, all the past output values are used in the calculation for generating the current output value.

The coefficient register 321 stores a coefficient to be multiplied by the previous output value. The coefficient register 322 stores a coefficient to be multiplied by the output value immediately before. Coefficient registers (not shown) may be provided to store the coefficients that are multiplied by the output values three or more previous. These coefficients are fixed values.

The multiplier 331 reads the output value immediately before from the register 311 and reads the coefficient from the coefficient register 321. The multiplier 331 multiplies the previous output value by a coefficient and sends the multiplication result to the adder 301. The multiplier 332 reads the output value two before from the register 312, and reads the coefficient from the coefficient register 322. The multiplier 332 multiplies the output value two before by a coefficient and sends the multiplication result to the adder 301. A multiplier (not shown) may be provided to multiply the output value three or more previous by the coefficient.

The adder 301 generates the current output value by adding the current input value and the past output value multiplied by a coefficient (that is, the output of the multiplier 331 and the multiplier 332 (+ α)). To do. The current output value is sent to the outside of the IIR filter 300 and stored in the register 311. On the other hand, the previous output value stored in the register 311 shifts to the register 312. Similarly, the output value two before stored in the register 312 may be shifted to a register (not shown).

In this way, the values stored in the register 311 and the register 312 (+ α) are updated every time a new input value is given (in other words, every time a new output value is generated). ..

It is assumed that the IIR filter processing is executed n (n is an arbitrary natural number), the circuit module corresponding to the IIR filter 300 is deleted without saving the parameters, and then the circuit module is remounted. In this case, since the values stored in the registers 311 and 312 have been initialized, the interrupted IIR filtering can be properly performed without waiting for the IIR filtering to be performed n times again from the initial state. Cannot resume.

On the other hand, if the values stored in the register 311 and the register 312 (+ α) are saved, the values can be restored when the circuit module is remounted after that, so that the circuit module is immediately interrupted. The IIR filter processing can be restarted. In short, the waiting time for resuming the interrupted processing can be shortened. In this example, the parameter is a value stored in a register included in the circuit module, but the parameter to be saved / restored is not limited to this.

The application execution unit 210 is, for example, a processor such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit). The application execution unit 210 executes the application software deployed in the application memory 250. The application execution unit 210 requests the reconfig management device 100 to mount the circuit module in the area of the resource 220 as needed when the application software is executed.

The resource 220 is a reconfigurable electronic device resource such as an FPGA. The resource 220 has a plurality of areas in which circuit modules can be individually mounted. In the area of the resource 220, the circuit module is mounted or the mounted circuit module is deleted by the reconfiguring management device 100. In the example of FIG. 2, the resource 220 has a total of three regions 1, region 2 and region 3. However, in practice, the number of regions may be 2 or less or 4 or more, and the scale of each region may not be equal.

The parameter storage unit 230 stores the parameters saved by the reconfiguring management device 100. This parameter is read by the reconfigure management device 100 for recovery when the circuit module is mounted in the area of resource 220 to resume processing using that parameter. The parameter storage unit 230 is preferably separate from the resource 220, for example, from the viewpoint of effectively utilizing the resource 220. However, it is also possible to provide the parameter storage unit 230 inside the resource 220.

The configuration ROM 240 stores circuit data for mounting the circuit module in the area of the resource 220. This circuit data is read by the reconfiguring management device 100 and written to the area of the resource 220, if necessary.

The application memory 250 is a RAM (Random Access Memory) connected to the application execution unit 210. The application memory 250 is deployed with application software executed by the application execution unit 210. This application software is stored in, for example, an auxiliary storage device (HDD (Hard Disk Drive), SSD (Solid State Drive), etc.) (not shown).

Specifically, the reconfiguring management device 100 includes a reconfiguring management unit 110, a parameter management unit 120, and a parameter adjusting unit 130, as illustrated in FIG. The functional division in FIG. 1 is only an example. The parameter adjustment unit 130 can be regarded as a part of the parameter management unit 120, or the parameter management unit 120 can be regarded as a part of the reconfigure management unit 110.

The reconfigure management unit 110 receives a request from the application execution unit 210 for mounting a circuit module. In response to the request, the reconfigure management unit 110 selects an area in which the circuit module targeted for the request is mounted from the rewritable areas 1 to 3. The area in which a certain circuit is mounted and the area in which the circuit (or another circuit that performs the same processing as the circuit) is later remounted may be the same or different.

Circuit modules mounted in the selected area will be deleted. When it is necessary to save the parameters for this circuit module, the reconfiguring management unit 110 instructs the parameter management unit 120 to save the parameters. Similarly, when it is necessary to restore the parameters of the circuit module that is the target of the request, the reconfiguring management unit 110 instructs the parameter management unit 120 to restore the parameters. Whether or not a parameter needs to be saved / restored can be determined, for example, by referring to a predetermined table. Such a table is illustrated in Table 1 below.

The reconfigure management unit 110 mounts the circuit module by reading the circuit data for mounting the requested circuit module from the configuration ROM and writing the circuit data in the selected area. The reconfiguring management unit 110 notifies the application execution unit 210 of the mounting result of the circuit module (whether or not the mounting is completed normally).

The parameter management unit 120 is instructed by the reconfigure management unit 110 to save or restore the parameters. When the parameter is instructed to be saved, the parameter management unit 120 acquires the parameter of the instructed circuit module (for example, reads the register value) and stores it in the parameter storage unit 230. On the other hand, when the parameter return is instructed, the parameter management unit 120 reads the instructed parameter from the parameter storage unit 230 and sets it in the instructed circuit module (for example, writes a value in a register). However, when it is necessary to adjust the parameters at the time of recovery, the parameter management unit 120 passes the parameters read from the parameter storage unit 230 to the parameter adjustment unit 130. Then, the parameter management unit 120 receives the adjusted parameter from the parameter adjustment unit 130 and sets it in the instructed circuit module. Whether or not the parameter needs to be adjusted at the time of recovery can be determined by referring to, for example, a predetermined table.

For example, if the circuit module that used the parameter before saving and the circuit module that uses the parameter after returning are different, and the bit width used by both is different, the bit width of the parameter can be changed. You will need it. Further, when the parameter changes with time during the execution of the process, the saved parameter does not reflect the time change during the period in which the process was interrupted. Therefore, it is necessary to make a correction to the parameter that simulates the time change that would have occurred in the parameter if it were assumed that the process was being executed during the period in which the process was interrupted. For example, time changes that can be formulated such as count-up and count-down are suitable for simulation.

The parameter adjustment unit 130 receives a parameter from the parameter management unit 120, adjusts the parameter, and returns the adjusted parameter to the parameter management unit 120. The executable adjustment of the parameter adjusting unit 130 may be one type or may be selected from a plurality of types.

For example, the parameter adjusting unit 130 may change the bit width of the parameter to obtain the adjusted parameter. In this case, the parameter adjusting unit 130 may change the bit width of the parameter so as to match the bit width used by the circuit module that restores the adjusted parameter.

In general, in digital signal processing, as the bit width used increases, the calculation accuracy improves, but the power consumption also increases. The reverse is also true. In consideration of such a trade-off between calculation accuracy and power consumption, a plurality of circuit modules that perform the same processing but use different bit widths may be prepared. For example, by causing a circuit module using a smaller bit width to perform processing, it is necessary to allow a decrease in calculation accuracy, but low power consumption operation becomes possible.

FIG. 5 illustrates an IIR filter 400 that uses a different bit width than that of FIG. In the following description, the IIR filter 400 may be referred to as a circuit (module) A'. The bit width used by the IIR filter 300 in FIG. 4 was 16 bits, but the bit width used by the IIR filter 400 is 14 bits. That is, the IIR filter 300 is a circuit module that aims at high calculation accuracy, and the IIR filter 400 is a circuit module that aims at low power consumption. Although description is omitted, an IIR filter that uses a bit width larger than that of the IIR filter 300 may be prepared.

The IIR filter 400 of FIG. 5 includes an adder 401, a register 411, a register 412, a coefficient register 421, a coefficient register 422, a multiplier 431, a multiplier 432, a bit width conversion unit 441, and a bit width. Includes a conversion unit 442.

The IIR filter 400 uses, for example, a 14-bit width. However, even if the configuration is performed, the interface at the boundary of the area cannot be changed. Therefore, the input and output interfaces need to be shared between the IIR filter 300 and the IIR filter 400. That is, the bit widths of the input signal and the output signal of the IIR filter 400 are both 16 bits, which is the same as that of the IIR filter 300. The signals handled in the region sandwiched by the bit width conversion unit 441 and the bit width conversion unit 442 of the IIR filter 400 are all 14 bits.

The adder 401, register 411, register 412, coefficient register 421, coefficient register 422, multiplier 431 and multiplier 432 handle 14-bit signals, but adder 301, register 311 and register 312 in FIG. , The coefficient register 321 and the coefficient register 322, the multiplier 331 and the multiplier 332.

The bit width conversion unit 441 receives a 16-bit signal (input signal of the IIR filter 400) and reduces the bit width to obtain a 14-bit signal. For example, the bit width conversion unit 441 can realize reduction by N bits by shifting the signal to the right by N bits and discarding the total N bits in order from the MSB (Most Significant Bit). Here, N is an arbitrary natural number, which is 2 in this example. In addition, offsets may be added as needed. The bit width conversion unit 441 outputs a 14-bit signal to the adder 401.

The bit width conversion unit 442 receives a 14-bit signal from the adder 401 and expands the bit width to obtain a 16-bit signal. For example, the bit width conversion unit 442 can realize expansion by N bits by shifting the signal to the left by N bits. In addition, offsets may be added as needed. The bit width conversion unit 442 outputs a 16-bit signal to the outside as an output signal of the IIR filter 400.

Alternatively, the parameter adjusting unit 130 applies a correction to the parameter that simulates the time change that would have occurred in the parameter if it is assumed that the processing was executed during the period in which the processing was interrupted, and the adjusted parameter is used. You may get it.

Hereinafter, when the four types of processing A, processing B, processing C, and processing D are repeatedly executed in order using FIGS. 3 and 6 to 8, the circuit module mounted in the regions 1 to 3 of the resource 220. And how the parameters stored in the parameter storage unit 230 change will be described. In FIG. 3, for the sake of simplification of the description, the processing times of processing A, processing B, processing C, and processing D are all the same, but these may be different in practice.

The process A corresponds to the IIR filter process and is executed by the circuit module A corresponding to the IIR filter 300 of FIG. 4 or the circuit module A'corresponding to the IIR filter 400 of FIG. Process B, Process C and Process D are executed by Circuit Module B, Circuit Module C and Circuit Module D, respectively. Parameter save / restore is performed for process A and process B, but not for process C and process D. In process A, the circuit module may be changed. For example, processing A may be executed by circuit module A followed by circuit module A'with an interruption, and vice versa. On the other hand, in process B, process C and process D, the circuit module is not changed. The above information is summarized in Table 1 below.

At time 0 in FIG. 3, process A is executed by the circuit module A mounted in region 1. Therefore, prior to time 0, the reconfiguring management device 100 has already mounted the circuit module A in the area 1. Further, for the subsequent processes B and C, the circuit module B and the circuit module D are already mounted in the regions 2 and 3, respectively, and are in a standby state. No parameter is saved in the parameter storage unit 230 (that is, it is empty).

At time 1 in FIG. 3, process B is executed by the circuit module B mounted in the region 2. On the other hand, the circuit module A mounted in the region 1 is rewritten to the circuit module D. When the process A is interrupted, it is necessary to save the parameters. Therefore, as illustrated in FIG. 6, the reconfiguring management device 100 saves the parameters of the circuit module A in the parameter storage unit 230, and then rewrites the circuit module A to the circuit module D.

At time 2 in FIG. 3, process C is executed by the circuit module C mounted in the region 3. On the other hand, the circuit module B mounted in the region 2 is rewritten to the circuit module A. It is necessary to save the parameters when the process B is interrupted. Therefore, the reconfiguring management device 100 saves the parameters of the circuit module B in the parameter storage unit 230. Further, when the process A is restarted, it is necessary to restore the parameters. Therefore, as illustrated in FIG. 7, the reconfiguring management device 100 mounts the circuit module A in the area 2, reads the parameters of the circuit module A from the parameter storage unit 230, and sets them in the circuit module A.

At time 3 in FIG. 3, the process D is executed by the circuit module D mounted in the region 1. On the other hand, the circuit module C mounted in the region 3 is rewritten to the circuit module B. It is necessary to restore the parameters when the process B is restarted. Therefore, the reconfig management device 100 mounts the circuit module B in the area 3, reads the parameters of the circuit module B from the parameter storage unit 230, and sets the circuit module B in the circuit module B.

At time 4 in FIG. 3, process A is executed by the circuit module A mounted in the region 2. On the other hand, the reconfig management device 100 rewrites the circuit module D mounted in the area 1 to the circuit module C.

At time 5 in FIG. 3, processing B is executed by the circuit module B mounted in the region 3. On the other hand, the circuit module A mounted in the region 2 is rewritten to the circuit module D. When the process A is interrupted, it is necessary to save the parameters. Therefore, as illustrated in FIG. 6, the reconfiguring management device 100 saves the parameters of the circuit module A in the parameter storage unit 230, and then rewrites the circuit module A to the circuit module D.

At time 6 in FIG. 3, process C is executed by the circuit module C mounted in region 1. On the other hand, it is assumed that the application execution unit 210 requests the implementation of the circuit module A'instead of the circuit module A in order to execute the process A. That is, the circuit module B mounted in the region 3 is rewritten to the circuit module A'instead of the circuit module A. It is necessary to save the parameters when the process B is interrupted. Therefore, the reconfiguring management device 100 saves the parameters of the circuit module B in the parameter storage unit 230. Further, when the process A is restarted, it is necessary to restore the parameters. Therefore, as illustrated in FIG. 8, the reconfiguring management device 100 mounts the circuit module A'in the area 2, reads out the parameters of the circuit module A from the parameter storage unit 230, and adjusts them for the circuit module A'. (In the example of FIG. 8, the bit width is reduced), and then the circuit module A'is set.

At time 7 in FIG. 3, the process D is executed by the circuit module D mounted in the region 2. On the other hand, the circuit module C mounted in the region 1 is rewritten to the circuit module B. It is necessary to restore the parameters when the process B is restarted. Therefore, the reconfiguring management device 100 mounts the circuit module B in the area 1, reads the parameters of the circuit module B from the parameter storage unit 230, and sets them in the circuit module B.

At time 8 in FIG. 3, the process A is executed by the circuit module A'mounted in the region 3. On the other hand, the reconfig management device 100 rewrites the circuit module D mounted in the area 2 to the circuit module C.

At time 9 in FIG. 3, process B is executed by the circuit module B mounted in the region 1. On the other hand, the circuit module A'mounted in the region 3 is rewritten to the circuit module D. When the process A is interrupted, it is necessary to save the parameters. Therefore, the reconfiguring management device 100 saves the parameters of the circuit module A'to the parameter storage unit 230, and then rewrites the circuit module A'to the circuit module D.

As described above, the reconfiguring management device according to the first embodiment has the first circuit before deleting the first circuit module mounted on the reconfigurable electronic device resource from the resource. The first parameter used in the process associated with the module is saved in the parameter storage unit. Then, this reconfigure management device adjusts the first parameter when the second circuit module associated with this process is implemented in the resource for resuming the process, and obtains the second parameter. This is set in the second circuit module.

Therefore, according to this reconfiguring management device, the internal state immediately before the deletion of the first circuit module can be immediately reproduced when the second circuit module is mounted, so that the interrupted processing can be appropriately restarted. be able to. That is, the waiting time for resuming the interrupted processing can be shortened. In addition, even if the second circuit module performs the same processing as the first circuit module but differs in configuration, the processing can be restarted without any problem. That is, the waiting time can be shortened even when the processing performed by the first circuit module is performed by the second circuit module from the middle.

The above embodiments are merely specific examples to aid in understanding the concepts of the invention and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. In the embodiment, various components can be added, deleted or converted without departing from the gist of the present invention.

The various functional parts described in each of the above embodiments may be realized by using a circuit. The circuit may be a dedicated circuit that realizes a specific function, or may be a general-purpose circuit such as a processor.

100: Reconfig management device 110: Reconfig management unit 120: Parameter management unit 130: Parameter adjustment unit 200: Integrated circuit 210: Application execution unit 220: Resources 230・ ・ Parameter storage 240 ・ ・ ・ Configuration ROM
250 ... Application memory 300, 400 ... IIR filter 301, 401 ... Adder 311, 312, 411, 412 ... Register 321, 322, 421, 422 ... Coefficient register 331, 332, 431 , 432 ... Multiplier 441,442 ... Bit width converter

Claims (5)

A first used in a first process performed by the first circuit module before the first circuit module implemented in the first region of the reconfigurable electronic device resource is removed from the resource. A parameter management unit that saves the parameter of 1 to the storage unit, and
When the second circuit module associated with the first process is mounted in the second area of the resource for resuming the first process, the first parameter stored in the storage unit. A parameter adjustment unit for adjusting a second parameter and obtaining a second parameter is provided.
The parameter management unit sets the second parameter in the second circuit module mounted in the second region for resuming the first process.
Management device. The management device according to claim 1, wherein the first circuit module corresponds to a circuit including an output feedback path. The second circuit module uses a bit width different from that of the first circuit module.
The parameter adjusting unit changes the bit width of the first parameter so as to match the bit width used by the second circuit module to obtain the second parameter, claim 1 or 2. The management device described in. The first parameter changes over time during the execution of the first process.
The parameter adjusting unit makes corrections that simulate the time change that would have occurred in the first parameter if it was assumed that the first process was executed during the period in which the first process was interrupted. The management device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the first parameter is subjected to the above-mentioned first parameter to obtain the second parameter. The management device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the first parameter is a value of a register included in the first circuit module.