嵌入式Java加速器系統設計

Abstract

Abstract Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is becoming a popular application platform for complex multimedia embedded systems today. In this thesis, we present the architecture design of a reusable Java accelerator IP for application processors for embedded systems. The accelerator IP cooperate with a general purpose processor (GPP) core to support the JRE. The GPP core is responsible for running service routines to support Java tasks such as I/O requests, dynamic class loading, heap memory management, etc. The proposed Java accelerator IP is a double-issue Java core in charge of execution of the Java applications. More importantly, it is easy to integrate such Java accelerator IP into existing embedded systems both hardware-wise and software-wise. On the software side, it does not rely on any full-blown OS (such as Linux) running on the GPP. Only a thin kernel that maintains the execution of interrupt-driven Java service routines is necessary to support the JRE. On the hardware side, the communication between the Java accelerator IP and the GPP core is achieved using a memory sharing table and an interrupt-driven mailbox device. The proposed Java embedded platform with the Java accelerator IP has been implemented on the Xilinx Virtex-5 ML507 FPGA development board.

Abstract Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is becoming a popular application platform for complex multimedia embedded systems today. In this thesis, we present the architecture design of a reusable Java accelerator IP for application processors for embedded systems. The accelerator IP cooperate with a general purpose processor (GPP) core to support the JRE. The GPP core is responsible for running service routines to support Java tasks such as I/O requests, dynamic class loading, heap memory management, etc. The proposed Java accelerator IP is a double-issue Java core in charge of execution of the Java applications. More importantly, it is easy to integrate such Java accelerator IP into existing embedded systems both hardware-wise and software-wise. On the software side, it does not rely on any full-blown OS (such as Linux) running on the GPP. Only a thin kernel that maintains the execution of interrupt-driven Java service routines is necessary to support the JRE. On the hardware side, the communication between the Java accelerator IP and the GPP core is achieved using a memory sharing table and an interrupt-driven mailbox device. The proposed Java embedded platform with the Java accelerator IP has been implemented on the Xilinx Virtex-5 ML507 FPGA development board.