xpMODEL: A Novel Model for ASIP Architecture

Introduction Various factors are making it increasingly dif-ficult and expensive to design and manufacture tra-ditional ASICs. In fact, there are signs of a revolu-tion afoot, with an increasing trend of engineersfrom hardware application groups going off…

xpMODEL: A Novel Model for ASIP Architecture

With greater flexibility and less cost, there is a trend that application specific instruction set processor (ASIP) will become the alternative implementation style to application of specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Architecture model is a key component in ASIP design flow. A novel ASIP model, xpMODEL, was presented. Its key features include: explicit specification of the memory subsystem allowing novel memory organizations and hierarchies; the introduction of meta-operator and instruction behavior extended finite state machine providing xpMODEL with ability to model execution sequencing, inherent parallelism, data/control/structural hazards, and out-oforder execution mode in ASIP. A comparison with other ASIP models shows the superiority of xpMODEL.