Memory based architecture and its implementation scheme named bit-parallel block-parallel functional memory type parallel processor BPBP FMPP

Abstract According to the progress of VLSI technology, the integration of memory and logic circuits on the same chip is becoming a key technology of the high performance processors. This paper, proposes a concept of new Memory Based Architecture (MBA) and presents one of its application-specific implementations. The MBA has a memory based two-dimensional regular, high density array structure capable of performing SIMD type parallel operations. The MBA inherits features of different implementation schemes proposed so far and varying from the content addressable memory to the memory processor array. As an example of MBA realization we propose a Bit-Parallel Block-Parallel Functional Memory type Processor (BPBP FMPP) and its application specific type FMPP-VQ developed for vector quantization. The BPBP FMPP is a set of memory-processing units capable of computing arithmetic and logic operations on two words simultaneously on every unit. The FMPP-VQ computes the distances between an input vector and all reference vectors in parallel and outputs the minimum value of the distances. It accelerates the nearest-neighbor search of vector quantization. An experimental LSI which operates at 25 MHz clock frequency has been fabricated.