The FELIN arithmetic coprocessor chip

We describe a general VLSI architecture for the computation of arithmetic expressions including floating-point trancendental functions. This architecture is divided in three parts: a communication machine, the control part of a computation machine and the operative part of this computation machine. In order to compute the most usual trancendental functions, we introduced some general algorithms, presented briefly here, including as a particular case the CORDIC scheme. Our major architecture goals were regularity, parametrization and automatic design. The final chip is designed in a 2-Alu CMOS technology, and its name is FELIN (“Fonctions ELémentaires INtégrées is the french for integrated elementary functions”). This work was supported in part by the GRECO C³ and the GCIS of the French CNRS.