Highly Flexible Multimode Digital Signal Processing Systems Using Adaptable Components and Controllers

Multimode systems have emerged as an area- and power-efficient platform for implementing multiple timewise mutually exclusive digital signal processing (DSP) applications in a single hardware space. This paper presents a design methodology for integrating flexible components and controllers into primarily fixed logic multimode DSP systems, thereby increasing their overall efficiency and implementation capabilities. The components are built using a technique called small-scale reconfigurability (SSR) that provides the necessary flexibility for both intermode and intramode reconfigurabilities, without the penalties associated with general-purpose reconfigurable logic. Using this methodology, area and power consumption are reduced beyond what is provided by current multimode systems, without sacrificing performance. The results show an average of 7% reduction in datapath component area, 26% reduction in register area, 36% reduction in interconnect MUX cost, and 68% reduction in the number of controller signals, with an average 38% increase in component utilization for a set of benchmark 32-bit DSP applications.