Automatic Construction of Program-Optimized FPGA Memory Networks

Abstract

Memory systems play a key role in the performance of FPGA applications. As FPGA deployments move towards design entry points that are more serial, memory latency has become a serious design consideration. For these applications, memory network optimization is essential in improving performance. In this paper, we examine the automatic, program-optimized construction of low-latency memory networks. We design a feedback-driven network compiler, which constructs an optimized memory network based on the target program's memory access behavior measured via a newly designed network profiler. In our test applications, the compiler-optimized networks provide a 45% performance gain on average over baseline memory networks by minimizing the impact of network latency on program performance.