CPU Modifications

In the previous post I’ve explained how the threading model of the new AEMB. In this post I will explain all the changes to the old AEMB core that were necessary to accommodate a coarse grained model and sum up with an analysis of how the new threading model affects Read more…

Coarse-Grained Threading

Finally I’ve changed the threading model of the AEMB. While some instructions are still buggy and hence the demo program doesn’t run properly, I still want to use this post and the next one to explain the changes I’ve made so far. In this post I’ll explain about the design Read more…

AEMB Threading

It is quite amazing how many times I discover myself to have a faulty or shallow understanding about the technology I am working on. Normally those discoveries occur as I go more in depth into the technology at hand. Those two lines are necessary to make up for any faulty Read more…

ISA and Dependencies

In this post I’ll continue the in detailed overview of the ISA of AEMB where I’ll review memory access, GET/PUT, special purpose register and program flow instructions. Next I‘ll explain about the data dependencies and how they are currently handled in AEMB. First, there are 12 instructions responsible for memory Read more…

AEMB ISA, in detail

Finally work on the AEMB is to be continued after a long unjustified break. In previous posts I have touched a bit on the Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) of AEMB and explained it’s relation with Microblaze ISA. In order to change the threading model of AEMB to coarse grained, I was warned Read more…

Branching Deep into AEMB

Unfortunately I am still behind schedule as I invested my time this week to analyse the flow of handling branches in AEMB. I had to do this because while I understand the big picture behind the new threading model, I still can’t see the details of it.
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Threading model for AEMB

Through out last week I started my preparation for changing the threading model for AEMB.

Software wise, I installed ISE on my Ubuntu to be able to compare the area of AEMB before and after the modifications. Here is a couple of tips for you to avoid making small mistakes during the installation. The first one is to run the installation script as root. Second make sure you have the necessary empty space on your drive before attempting the installation.
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AEMB hand drawn circuits

Unfortunately this week has been the least productive for me. In this post, I will summarize my small progress for this week. More importantly, as the blog title suggests, I will post images of AEMB design that I drew during my analysis. I hope this can make up for my slow progress.
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AEMB ISA, Registers, Memory

Dissecting AEMB continues. In this post I will give an overview about the instruction set architecture (ISA) of the AEMB and its register file. Finally I’ll explain how AEMB communicates with the data memory and the accelerator bus. Since AEMB code is compiled using the Microblaze toolchain, the ISA of Read more…