Hardware Support for Dynamic Reconfiguration in Reconfigurable SoC Architectures

Dynamic reconfiguration of digital hardware enables systems to adapt to changing demands of the applications and of the environment. This paper concentrates on a core element of a reconfigurable hardware architecture, which supports a Real-time Operating System in reconfiguring the hardware – the Run-time Reconfiguration (RTR) Manager. The RTR-Manager has been developed to control, monitor and execute dynamic reconfiguration. It enables a fast adaptation of the SoC architecture through context switching between different configurations. Configuration code analysis and observation of the reconfiguration process guarantee a correct reconfiguration and increase the safety of the system. The system was successfully implemented and evaluated by means of the Rapid Prototyping System RAPTOR2000.