[270] | 1 | The objective of COACH is to provide an integrated design flow, based on the |
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| 2 | SoCLib virtual prototyping infrastructure, and optimized for the design of |
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| 3 | multi-processors digital systems targeting FPGA devices. |
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| 4 | Such digital systems are generally integrated |
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| 5 | into one or several chips, and there are two types of applications: |
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| 6 | They can be embedded (autonomous) applications |
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| 7 | such as personal digital assistants (PDA), ambiant computing components, |
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| 8 | or wireless sensor networks (WSN). |
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| 9 | They can also be extension boards connected to a PC to accelerate a specific computation, |
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| 10 | as in High-Performance Computing (HPC) or High-Speed Signal Processing (HSSP). |
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| 11 | |
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| 12 | The COACH project will provide three hardware architectural templates: |
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| 13 | |
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| 14 | - A Neutral architectural template based on the SoCLib IP core library and the |
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| 15 | VCI/OCP communication infrastructure. |
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| 16 | - An Altera architectural template based on the Altera IP core library, the |
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| 17 | AVALON system bus and the NIOS processor. |
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| 18 | - A Xilinx architectural template based on the Xilinx IP core library, the PLB |
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| 19 | system bus and the Microblaze processor. |
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| 20 | |
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| 21 | The COACH design flow will be dedicated to system designers, and will as |
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| 22 | much as possible hide the hardware characteristics to the end-user. |
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| 23 | The specification of the application will be independant from the |
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| 24 | architectural template and the target FPGA device. |
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| 25 | |
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| 26 | To reach this ambitious goal, the project will rely on the experience and the |
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| 27 | complementariness of partners in the following domains: |
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| 28 | - Operating system and communication middleware (Tima, Lip6), |
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| 29 | - MPSoC architectures (Tima, Lab-Sticc, Lip6), |
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| 30 | - ASIP architectures (Inria/Cairn), |
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| 31 | - High Level Synthesis (Tima, Lab-Sticc, Lip6), and compilation (Ens-Lyon/Lip). |
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| 32 | |
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| 33 | The COACH project does not start from scratch. |
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| 34 | It stronly relies on the SoCLib virtual prototyping platform for prototyping, |
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| 35 | (DSX, component library), operating systems (MUTEKH, DNA/OS). |
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| 36 | It also leverages on several existing technologies: the GAUT and UGH tools for HLS, |
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| 37 | the ROMA project for ASIP, the SYNTOL and BEE tools for source-level analysis and transformations |
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| 38 | and on the Xilinx and Altera IP core libraries. |
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| 39 | Finally it will use the Xilinx and Altera logic and physical synthesis |
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| 40 | tools to generate the FPGA configuration bitstreams. |
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| 41 | |
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| 42 | Two major FPGA companies are involved in the project: Xilinx will contribute |
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| 43 | as a contractual partner providing documentation and manpower; Altera will contribute as |
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| 44 | a supporter, providing documentation and development boards. These two companies are strongly motivated |
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| 45 | to help the COACH project to generate efficient bitsreams for both FPGA families. |
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| 46 | The role of the industrial partners Bull, Thales, Navtel and Flexras is to provide |
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| 47 | real use cases to benchmark the COACH design environment and to analyze the designer productivity |
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| 48 | improvements. |
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| 49 | |
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| 50 | Following the general policy of the SoCLib platform, the COACH project will be an open |
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| 51 | infrastructure, available in the framework of the SoCLib server. |
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| 52 | The architectural templates, and the COACH software tools will be distributed under the |
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| 53 | GPL license. The VHDL synthesizable models for the neutral architectural template (SoCLib |
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| 54 | IP core library) will be freely available for non commercial use. For industrial exploitation |
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| 55 | the technology providers are ready to propose commercial licenses, directly to the end user, |
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| 56 | or through a third party. |
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| 57 | |
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| 58 | Finally, the COACH project is already supported by a large number of PMEs, as demonstrated by the |
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| 59 | "letters of interest", that have collected during the preparation of the project : |
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| 60 | - ADACSYS |
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| 61 | - MDS |
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| 62 | - INPIXAL |
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| 63 | - CAMKA System |
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| 64 | - ATEME |
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| 65 | - ALSIM |
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| 66 | - SILICOMP-AQL |
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| 67 | - ABOUND Logic |
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| 68 | - EADS-ASTRIUM |
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