Using Type Transformations to Generate Program Variants for FPGA Design Space Exploration

Nabi, S. W. and Vanderbauwhede, W. (2016) Using Type Transformations to Generate Program Variants for FPGA Design Space Exploration. In: 2015 International Conference on ReConFigurable Computing and FPGAs (ReConFig), Mexico City, Mexico, 7-9 Dec 2015, pp. 1-6. ISBN 9781467394055 (doi: 10.1109/ReConFig.2015.7393365)

Abstract

We present preliminary results with the TyTra design flow. Our aim is to create a parallelising compiler for high-performance scientific code on heterogeneous platforms, with a focus on Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). Using the functional language Idris, we show how this programming paradigm facilitates generation of different correct-by-construction program variants through type transformations. We have developed a custom Intermediate Representation (IR) language, the TyTra-IR, which is similar to the LLVM IR, with extensions to express parallelism, allowing us to designs variants associated with each program variant. The key innovation of the TyTra-IR is the ability to construct and cost design variants for FPGAs. Our prototype compiler generates Verilog code for FPGA synthesis from a given IR description. Using a real-world Successive Over-Relaxation (SOR) kernel, we illustrate generation of program variants in Idris, their representation in TyTra-IR, and evaluation of variants using our cost-model. We compare the estimates from the cost-model with results from synthesis and simulation of equivalent HDL.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Vanderbauwhede, Professor Wim and Nabi, Dr Syed Waqar
• Authors: Nabi, S. W., and Vanderbauwhede, W.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
• ISBN: 9781467394055
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2015 IEEE
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher.

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
61445	1	Exploiting Parallelism through Type Transformations for Hybrid Manycore Systems.	Wim Vanderbauwhede	Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)	EP/L00058X/1	COM - COMPUTING SCIENCE