Automatic Generation of Interrupt-Aware Hardware Accelerators with the M2V Compiler

MSR-TR-2008-110 |

The MIPS-to-Verilog (M2V) compiler and the Basic Block Tools (BBTools) can automatically generate a hardware accelerator for selected blocks of machine code in an application. The compiler translates blocks of MIPS machine code into a hardware design captured in Verilog (an “Extension”). The BBTools patch the application binary by inserting the extension instruction that triggers the accelerator. The original code is preserved, so that execution can fall back to software when necessary. This work extends the M2V compiler with support for memory load and store instructions, and for interrupts. We use a transactional model to handle interrupts and/or traps due to TLB misses in the Extension. We implemented and tested the interrupt support mechanism using a 64-bit division basic block, with added instructions for memory loads off the stack pointer. We also added the feature of allowing the BBTools to automatically create the best encoding for an extension instruction. The tool now evaluates which pair of roots in the dependency graph leads to the shortest execution cycle time for the Extension. With this addition, the process of creating Extensions for the eMIPS processor can now be fully automated and applied to practical applications, where loads and stores inside the Extension are of paramount importance.