Speaker:

Gerhard Fettweis, Technical University of Dresden, Germany

Title:

Efficient Bit-Stream Processing for MPSoC Platforms by HW/SW CoDesign

Abstract:

Current boradband cellular wireless standards like HSPA or LTE contain various protocols that require tremendous amount of bitstream processing. The challenge for the mobile devices in achieving an energy efficient processing is large. Base station solutions, including for small cells, require an order of magnitude more continuous processing. Complex and extensive protocol specifications favor a much as possible software based processing solution. This work investigates how application specific instruction-set processors (ASIPs) can be employed to carry out energy efficient bitstream processing. Parallel ASIPs allow to accelerate performance critical hot-spots by custom hardware extensions. Different bitstream processing hardware extensions are proposed and investigated. As the actual processing is done in software, the efficient specification of protocols in software for mapping/compiling it onto hardware is needed. We propose the use of a novel methodology for this task: Complex bitstreams are described by short and precise meta-program constructs. Those constructs a transformed by the compiler at compile time to extensive bitstream manipulation code. By using standard optimization features the compiler is able to generate energy efficient assembly code. Additionally custom hardware extensions of the ASIP can be included without changing the software doing the actual bitstream processing. Benchmarks and implementation examples show the performance of this approach. It is demonstrated how energy efficient bitstream processing is possible for embedded systems by proposing a lightweight and platform independent software interface.

Bio:

Gerhard Fettweis earned his Ph.D. degree from Aachen University of Technololgy (RWTH) in 1990. From 1990 to 1991, he was Visiting Scientist at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, CA, developing signal processing innovations for IBM’s disk drive products. From 1991 to 1994, he was a Scientist with TCSI Inc., Berkeley, CA, responsible for signal processor IC development projects for cellular phone chip-sets. Since 1994 he holds the Vodafone Chair at Technische Universität Dresden, Germany. Gerhard Fettweis has (co-)authored 500 publications and more than 25 patent families. He is TPC Chair of IEEE ICC 2009 (Dresden), and has organized many other events. Among receiving other awards, as the Alcatel-Lucent Research Award, he is an IEEE Fellow. Next to producing scientific innovations, he has spun-out eight start-ups: Systemonic (now NXP and ST-NXP Wireless), Radioplan (Actix), Signalion, InCircuit, Dresden Silicon (Signalion), Freedelity, RadioOpt, and Blue Wonder Communications. At TU Dresden he setup a team of currently 20 companies sponsoring his research, coming from Asia, Europe, and the US. In addition, an equally large set of companies have funded his Ph.D. research projects so far. A prominent project example is the German EASY-C project, researching on LTE-Advanced technology, and setting up the largest cellular testbed in downtown Dresden. In his current capacity as the “Vodafone Academic Ambassador” he assists Vodafone in strategic guidance of international academic research collaborations.



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