MorphoSys: a reconfigurable architecture for multimedia applications

Abstract

We describe the MorphoSys reconfigurable system, which combines a reconfigurable array of processor cells with a RISC processor core and a high bandwidth memory interface unit. We introduce the array architecture, its configuration memory, inter-connection network, role of the control processor and related components. Architecture implementation is described in brief and the efficacy of MorphoSys is demonstrated through simulation of video compression (MPEG-2) and target-recognition applications. Comparison with other implementations illustrates that MorphoSys achieves higher performance by up to 10X.