A Fast MER Enumeration Algorithm for Online Task Placement on Reconfigurable FPGAs

Tieyuan PAN  Lian ZENG  Yasuhiro TAKASHIMA  Takahiro WATANABE  

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Fundamentals of Electronics, Communications and Computer Sciences   Vol.E99-A   No.12   pp.2412-2424
Publication Date: 2016/12/01
Online ISSN: 1745-1337
DOI: 10.1587/transfun.E99.A.2412
Type of Manuscript: Special Section PAPER (Special Section on VLSI Design and CAD Algorithms)
Category: 
Keyword: 
fast MER enumeration,  FPGAs,  low memory consumption,  

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Summary: 
In this paper, we propose a fast Maximal Empty Rectangle (MER) enumeration algorithm for online task placement on reconfigurable Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). On the assumption that each task utilizes rectangle-shaped resources, the proposed algorithm can manage the free space on FPGAs by an MER list. When assigning or removing a task, a series of MERs are selected and cut into segments according to the task and its assignment location. By processing these segments, the MER list can be updated quickly with low memory consumption. Under the proof of the upper limit of the number of the MERs on the FPGA, we analyze both the time and space complexity of the proposed algorithm. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm is verified by experiments.