Compilation for Domain-Specific Computing

Abstract

As alternatives to multi-core CPUs and GPUs, field-programmable gate-arrays (FPGAs) can be used as customized computing engines for accelerating a wide range of applications. The recent developments by AMD to open up its HyperTransport bus and Intel to open up its Front-side Bus lead to new high-performance computing platforms with high-bandwidth communication between CPUs and FPGAs. The effective use of such hybrid computing platforms relies on efficient compilation tools and technologies for automatic synthesis of applications specified in typical software languages, such as C or C++, onto FPGAs. In this talk, I shall present the platform-based compilation and synthesis system, named xPilot, developed at UCLA. The xPilot provides advanced behavioral synthesis capability for compiling C or C++ applications to FPGA platforms for logic, interconnects, and memory optimization with flexibile performance and area trade-off. It includes a number of algorithmic innovations, such as scheduling based on the system of difference constraints, resource binding for distributed memory architectures, etc. The xPilot system has been licensed by AutoESL Design Technologies, Inc. for commercialization. The AutoPilot tool from AutoESL, derived from xPilot, has been successfully used to compile a number of computation-intensive applications in many domains, such as multimedia applications, financial engineering, and computer-aided designs. I shall report some of the application results.

Speaker Biography

Jason Cong received his B.S. degree in computer science from Peking University in 1985, his M.S. and Ph. D. degrees in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1987 and 1990, respectively. Currently, he is a professor and the chairman of the Computer Science Department of University of California, Los Angeles. He is also a co-director of the VLSI CAD Laboratory.

Dr. Cong’s research interests include computer-aided design of VLSI circuits and systems, design and synthesis of system-on-a-chip, programmable systems, novel computer architectures, nano-systems, and highly scalable algorithms. He has published over 250 research papers and led over 30 research projects supported by DARPA, NSF, SRC, and a number of industrial sponsors in these areas. He served on the technical program committees and executive committees of many conferences, such as ASPDAC, DAC, FPGA, ICCAD, ISCAS, ISPD, and ISLEPD, and several editorial boards, including the ACM Trans. on Design Automation of Electronic Systems and the IEEE Trans. on VLSI Systems. Dr. Cong has been a guest professor at Peking University since 2000.

Dr. Cong received a number of awards and recognitions, include the Best Graduate Award from Peking University in 1985, and the Ross J. Martin Award for Excellence in Research from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989, the NSF Young Investigator Award in 1993, the Northrop Outstanding Junior Faculty Research Award from UCLA in 1993, the ACM/SIGDA Meritorious Service Award in 1998, and the SRC Technical Excellence Award in 2000. He also received three best paper awards—including the 1995 IEEE Trans. on CAD Best Paper Award, the 2005 International Symposium on Physical Design Best Paper Award, and the 2005 ACM Transaction on Design Automation of Electronic Systems Best Paper Award. He was elected to an IEEE Fellow in 2000.

Dr. Cong has served on the Technical Advisory Board of a number of EDA and silicon IP companies, including Atrenta, eASIC, Get2Chip, and Magma Design Automation. He was the founder and president of Aplus Design Technologies, Inc., until it was acquired by Magma Design Automation in 2003. Currently, he serves as the Chief Technology Advisor of Magma and AutoESL Design Technologies, Inc.

Dr. Cong has graduated 22 PhD students. A number of them are now faculty members in major research universities, including Georgia Tech., Purdue, SUNY Binghamton, UCLA, UIUC, and UT Austin. Others are taking key R&D or management positions in major EDA/computer/semiconductor companies, such as Broadcom, Cadence, IBM, Intel, Magma, and Synopsys, or being founding members of high-tech startups, such as Aplus and AutoESL Design Technologies.