Nvidia Corporation

Element Cxi, LLC

John M Rudosky

Brian A Box

Steven Hennick Kelem

Stephen L Wasson

Walter James Scheuermann

Sharad Deepak Sambhwani

Aixin Liu

The exemplary embodiments provide a reconfigurable integrated circuit architecture comprising: a configurable circuit element configurable for a plurality of data operations, each data operation corresponding to a context of a plurality of contexts; a plurality of input queues; a plurality of output queues; one or more configuration and control registers to store, for each context of the plurality of contexts, a plurality of configuration bits, a run status bit, and a plurality of bits designating at least one data input queue and at least one data output queue; and an element controller coupled to the configurable circuit element and to the one or more configuration and control registers, the element controller to allow loading of a context configuration and execution of a data operation upon the arrival of input data in the context-designated data input queue when the context run status is enabled and the context-designated data output queue has a status to accept output data.

Data-driven integrated circuit architecture

The exemplary embodiments provide a multi-context configurable memory controller comprising: an input-output data port array comprising a plurality of input queues and a plurality of output queues; at least one configuration and control register to store, for each context of a plurality of contexts, a plurality of configuration bits; a configurable circuit element configurable for a plurality of data operations, each data operation corresponding to a context of a plurality of contexts, the plurality of data operations comprising memory address generation, memory write operations, and memory read operations, the configurable circuit element comprising a plurality of configurable address generators; and an element controller, the element controller comprising a port arbitration circuit to arbitrate among a plurality of contexts having a ready-to-run status, and the element controller to allow concurrent execution of multiple data operations for multiple contexts having the ready-to-run status.

Multi-context configurable memory controller

The exemplary embodiments provide a reconfigurable integrated circuit architecture having a predetermined, unit timing increment (or delay) for both data operations and data word transfers within every zone and between zones, which are independent of application placement and routing. An exemplary IC comprises a plurality of circuit zones, with each zone comprising: a plurality of composite circuit elements, a plurality of cluster queues, and a full interconnect bus. Each composite circuit element comprises: a configurable circuit element circuit and an element interface and control circuit, with the element interface and control circuit comprising an input queue and an output queue. Each cluster queue comprises an element interface and control having an input queue and an output queue. The full interconnect bus couples every output queue within the zone to every input queue within the zone. Any data operation performed by a composite circuit element, any data word transfer through a cluster queue, and any data word transfer over the first full interconnect bus, is completed within a predetermined unit time delay which is independent of application placement and application data routing on the reconfigurable IC.

Hierarchically-scalable reconfigurable integrated circuit architecture with unit delay modules

The exemplary embodiments provide a reconfigurable integrated circuit capable of on-chip configuration and reconfiguration, comprising: a plurality of configurable composite circuit elements; a configuration and control bus; a memory; and a sequential processor. Each composite circuit element comprises: a configurable circuit; and an element interface and control circuit, the element interface and control circuit comprising an element controller and at least one configuration and control register to store one or more configuration and control words. The configuration and control bus is coupled to the plurality of configurable composite circuit elements, and comprises a plurality of address and control lines and a plurality of data lines. The sequential processor can write configurations to the configuration and control registers of an addressed configurable composite circuit element to configure or reconfigure the configurable circuit.

Reconfigurable integrated circuit architecture with on-chip configuration and reconfiguration

A reconfigurable bit-manipulation node is disclosed. The node includes an execution unit configured to perform a number of bit-oriented functions and a control unit configured to control the execution unit to allow one of the bit-oriented functions to be performed. The execution unit includes a number of elements interconnected with one another to allow the bit-oriented functions to be performed. The elements include a programmable butterfly unit, a number of non-programmable butterfly units, a number of data path elements, a look-up table memory, and a reorder memory. The execution unit is capable of engaging in one of a number of operating modes to perform the bit-oriented functions. The operating modes include a programmable mode and a number of fixed operating modes including Viterbi decoding, turbo decoding and variable length encoding and decoding. The data path elements include a programmable shifter and a programmable combiner.

Reconfigurable bit-manipulation node

A reconfigurable bit-manipulation node is disclosed that includes an execution unit configured to perform a number of bit-oriented functions and a control unit configured to control the execution unit to allow one of the bit-oriented functions to be performed. The execution unit is comprised of interconnected elements that include a programmable butterfly unit, a number of non-programmable butterfly units, a number of data path elements, a look-up table memory, and a reorder memory. The execution unit is capable of engaging in one of a number of operating modes to perform the bit-oriented functions. The operating modes include a programmable mode and a number of fixed operating modes including Viterbi decoding, turbo decoding and variable length encoding and decoding. The data path elements include a programmable shifter and a programmable combiner.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a Viterbi decoder is described that operates on convolutional error correcting codes. The decoder allows for a pipelined architecture and a unique partitioning of survivor memory to maintain data integrity. Throughput rate is improved and stalling minimized by accessing memory words using a look-ahead function to fill the pipeline.

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Hampton, NH, United States of America

John M Rudosky