應用導向處理機發展趨勢

Trends of Application-Specific Instruction Set Processor

馬詠程(Yung-Cheng Ma) ； 郭顯豐(Hsien-Feng Kuo)

《電腦與通訊》 111期 (2005/03) Pp. 123-130

https://doi.org/10.29917/CCLTJ.200503.0015

摘要

近年來，有越來越多的通訊與多媒體電子產品，使用應用導向處理器作為其嵌入式處理器核心。本文將介紹應用導向處理器設計的主要技術與系統。設計嵌入式處理器的主要工作是進行架構探索(architecture exploration)。我們將介紹進行架構探索的主要技術與系統，包括：retargetable compiler技術、架構描述語言(architecture description language)以及platform-based處理器設計方式。我們預期未來的趨勢，是使用超長指令集(VLIW, Very-Long Instruction Word)作為應用導向處理機平台。我們亦針對這個趨勢討論相關研究議題，包括：retargetable的VLIW程式碼壓縮與最佳化、自動架構探索與自動功能單元合成。預期未來幾年處理機市場將有些轉變：在眾多廠商中，掌握處理機平台與系統層次設計自動化技術的廠商，將能掌握大部分的利潤。這個趨勢可作為台灣發展處理機工業的一個方向。

關鍵字

應用導向處理器 ； 架構探索 ； 超長指令處理器

並列摘要

In recent years, more and more multimedia and communication products use application-specific instruction-set processor (ASIP) as the embedded processor core. This article presents a survey on technologies and systems to design an ASIP. The central role in ASIP design is architecture exploration. Design systems and issues for architecture exploration, including retargetable compiler technology, architecture description languages, and platform-based processor design, are discussed. It turns out that VLIW (Very-Long Instruction Word) platform based design system will become the major trend in the future. Research issues for the future are discussed, including retargetable VLIW code compression and optimization, automatic architecture exploration, and functional unit synthesis. It is expected that there will be a change in embedded processor marketing: Among various processor vendors, companies who owns platform and system-level design automation technologies will gain most of the revenue. This shows the direction for Taiwan to develop processor industry.

並列關鍵字

Application-Specific Instruction-Set Processor ； ASIP ； Architecture Exploration ； Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW) Processor