A double-issue java processor design for embedded applications

Abstract

Java applications for embedded systems are becoming popular today. CLDC/MIDP is the standard application platform for mobile phones while CDC/PBP is the emerging application platform for next generation digital TV set-top boxes. Although software-based Java Virtual Machines (VM) are prevalent, most of these VMs require a host processor running at much higher clock rate than 300MHz to reach reasonable performance. This is beyond the recommended specification of handsets and set-top boxes. In this paper, we have proposed a double-issue java processor for embedded systems. The design is not tied to any host processors and can be used as an efficient binary execution engine for a full Java Runtime Environment implementation. When synthesized on a Virtex IV FPGA (4VFX12FF66-10), the RTL model can reach over 100MHz and consumes less than 22% resources of the device.