Program-counter-less bit-serial field-programmable VLSI processor with mesh-connected cellular array structure

This paper proposes a field programmable VLSI processor (FPVLSI) based on a bit-serial mesh-connected cellular array that reduces complexity of a programmable interconnection network. A cell is capable of performing operations, storing intermediate results, and controlling bit-serial operations. To implement these three functions efficiently, the cell consists of shift-register-based lookup tables. Moreover, direct allocation of a control/data flow graph (CDFG) is employed where only a single node in a CDFG is mapped into a single cell so that the interconnection complexity is greatly reduced. The FPVLSI with 64 cells is designed in a 0.18μm CMOS design rule. The estimated performance of the FPVLSI is evaluated to be 9 times higher than that of the conventional FPGA in a typical application.