Adaptive integrated circuitry with heterogeneous and reconfigurable matrices of diverse and adaptive computational units having fixed, application specific computational elements

Abstract

The present invention concerns a new category of integrated circuitry and a new methodology for adaptive or reconfigurable computing. The preferred IC embodiment includes a plurality of heterogeneous computational elements coupled to an interconnection network. The plurality of heterogeneous computational elements include corresponding computational elements having fixed and differing architectures, such as fixed architectures for different functions such as memory, addition, multiplication, complex multiplication, subtraction, configuration, reconfiguration, control, input, output, and field programmability. In response to configuration information, the interconnection network is operative in real-time to configure and reconfigure the plurality of heterogeneous computational elements for a plurality of different functional modes, including linear algorithmic operations, non-linear algorithmic operations, finite state machine operations, memory operations, and bit-level manipulations. The various fixed architectures are selected to comparatively minimize power consumption and increase performance of the adaptive computing integrated circuit, particularly suitable for mobile, hand-held or other battery-powered computing applications.

1 - 74 . (canceled) 
   
   
       75 . An adaptive mobile communications device comprising:
 a first configurable computational logic unit including a first plurality of heterogeneous computational elements coupled to each other via a first computational interconnection network to configure interconnections between the computational elements in response to configuration information to perform a first operation of a first communication mode function; and   a second configurable complex processing unit including a second plurality of heterogeneous computational elements coupled to each other via a second interconnection network to configure the interconnections between the second plurality of computational elements in response to the configuration information to perform a second operation of the first communication mode function, the second plurality of heterogeneous computational elements having different types of computational elements than those of the first plurality of heterogeneous computational elements; and   wherein the interconnections between the computational elements of the first and second computational units are configured via second configuration information to perform a second communication mode function.   
   
   
       76 . The communication device of  claim 75 , wherein the first communication mode is GSM and the second communication mode is CDMA. 
   
   
       77 . The communication device of  claim 75 , wherein the first and second communication modes are wireless communication modes. 
   
   
       78 . The communications device of  claim 75 , wherein the first communications mode configuration information is received to configure the computational units based on the physical location of the device. 
   
   
       78 . The communications device of  claim 75 , wherein at least some of the computational elements are configured for another operating mode. 
   
   
       79 . The communications device of  claim 78 , wherein the operating mode includes configuring the device as a cellular or other mobile telephone, a music player, a pager, or a personal digital assistant. 
   
   
       80 . The communications device of  claim 75 , wherein the first plurality of computational elements are organized as a simple computational architecture and the second plurality of computational elements are organized as a digital signal processing architecture. 
   
   
       81 . The communications device of  claim 75 , wherein the first interconnection network operates as a Boolean interconnection network and a data interconnection network, the first interconnection network further allowing the transmission of data and configuration information. 
   
   
       82 . The communications device of  claim 75 , wherein the first plurality of computational elements include a function generator and an adder, an adder and a register, a function generator and a register, or a function generator and an adder and a register, the function generator having data inputs and a control input to selection a specific function; and
 wherein the second plurality of computational elements include a multiplier and an adder, a multiplier and a register, or a multiplier and an adder and a register.   
   
   
       83 . The communications device of  claim 75 , further comprising a third interconnection network coupled to the first configurable computational logic unit and the second configurable complex processing unit, the third interconnection network sending the configuration information to the computational units. 
   
   
       84 . The communications device of  claim 75 , wherein the first computational interconnection network includes multiplexers coupled to the first plurality of heterogeneous computational elements. 
   
   
       85 . The communications device of  claim 84 , wherein the configuration information includes control signals to control the multiplexers. 
   
   
       86 . The communications device of  claim 75 , wherein the second plurality of heterogeneous computational elements of the configurable complex processing unit each perform a function from the group of multiplication, addition, subtraction, accumulation, summation and dynamic shift. 
   
   
       87 . The communications device of  claim 75 , wherein the operation performed by the configurable complex processing unit is a digital signal processing operation. 
   
   
       88 . The communications device of  claim 75 , wherein the first operation comprises bit level manipulation; and wherein the second operation comprises word level manipulation. 
   
   
       89 . A communications device comprising:
 a configurable signal processing unit including a signal processing interconnection network, and a plurality of heterogeneous computational elements including a multiplier computational element and an adder computational element, the signal processing interconnection network coupled to each of the heterogeneous computational elements, wherein the configurable signal processing unit is configured to perform a first communication mode function via switching interconnections of the interconnection network between the plurality of heterogeneous computational elements; and   wherein the interconnections are reconfigured between the computational elements to perform a second communication mode function.   
   
   
       90 . The communications device of  claim 89 , further comprising:
 a configurable logic unit including a plurality of computational elements; and   an interconnection network coupled to the configurable logic unit and the configurable signal processing unit, the interconnection network sending configuration information to the configurable signal processing unit.   
   
   
       91 . The communications device of  claim 90 , wherein the plurality of computational elements of the configurable logic unit may include an adder, a register, or a function generator having data inputs and a control input to select a specific function. 
   
   
       92 . The communication device of  claim 90 , wherein the first communication mode is GSM and the second communication mode is CDMA. 
   
   
       93 . The communication device of  claim 90 , wherein the first and second communication modes are wireless communication modes. 
   
   
       94 . The communications device of  claim 89 , wherein the signal processing interconnection network includes multiplexers coupled to the multiplier and adder computational elements, the multiplexers routing data between the computational elements. 
   
   
       95 . The communications device of  claim 89 , wherein the first communication mode function includes one of fixed point arithmetic functions, floating point arithmetic functions, filtering functions and transformation functions. 
   
   
       96 . The communications device of  claim 89 , wherein the heterogeneous computational elements of the configurable signal processing unit each perform a function from the group of subtraction, accumulation, summation and dynamic shift. 
   
   
       97 . The communications device of  claim 89 , wherein the configurable signal processing unit is configured to perform the signal processing function by bypassing one of the adder or multiplier heterogeneous computational element and connecting the other adder or multiplier heterogeneous computational element via the signal processing interconnection network and is configured to perform a different function by connecting the adder and multiplier heterogeneous computational elements via the signal processing interconnection network. 
   
   
       98 . The communications device of  claim 90 , wherein the first and second communication mode operation comprises word level manipulation and wherein the configurable logic unit is configured to perform a simple operation comprising bit level manipulation. 
   
   
       99 . A method of changing communication modes from a first communication mode to a second communication mode in a communications device comprising:
 configuring a first computational interconnection network to configure interconnections between a first plurality of computational elements of a first configurable computational logic unit in response to first communication mode configuration information to perform an operation of the first communication mode function;   configuring a second interconnection network to configure the interconnections between a second plurality of computational elements of a configurable complex processing unit in response to the first communication mode configuration information to perform another operation of the first communication mode function, the second plurality of heterogeneous computational elements having different types of computational elements than those of the first plurality of heterogeneous computational elements; and   reconfiguring the interconnections between the computational elements of the first and second computational units via second configuration information to perform a function of the second communication mode.   
   
   
       100 . The method of  claim 99 , wherein the first communication mode is GSM and the second communication mode is CDMA. 
   
   
       101 . The method of  claim 99 , wherein the first and second communication modes are wireless communication modes. 
   
   
       102 . The method of  claim 99 , wherein the first communication mode configuration information is received to configure the computational units based on the physical location of the device. 
   
   
       103 . The method of  claim 102 , further comprising configuring at least some of the computational elements for another operating mode. 
   
   
       104 . The method of  claim 103 , wherein the operating mode includes configuring the device as a cellular or other mobile telephone, a music player, a pager, or a personal digital assistant. 
   
   
       105 . The method of  claim 99 , wherein the first plurality of computational elements are organized as a simple computational architecture and the second plurality of computational elements are organized as a digital signal processing architecture. 
   
   
       106 . The method of  claim 99 , wherein the first interconnection network operates as a Boolean interconnection network and a data interconnection network, the first interconnection network further allowing the transmission of data and configuration information. 
   
   
       107 . The method of  claim 99 , wherein the first plurality of heterogeneous computational elements are different ones of a group of an adder, a multiplier, a register, and a function generator having data inputs and a control input to select a specific function; and wherein the second plurality of computational elements include a multiplier and an adder, a multiplier and a register, or a multiplier and an adder and a register. 
   
   
       108 . The method of  claim 88 , wherein the first computational interconnection network includes multiplexers coupled to the first plurality of heterogeneous computational elements. 
   
   
       109 . The method of  claim 108 , wherein the configuration information includes control signals to control the multiplexers. 
   
   
       110 . The method of  claim 99 , wherein the second plurality of heterogeneous computational elements of the configurable complex processing unit each perform a function from the group of multiplication, addition, subtraction, accumulation, summation and dynamic shift. 
   
   
       111 . The method of  claim 99 , wherein the operation performed by the configurable complex processing unit is a digital signal processing operation. 
   
   
       112 . The communications device of  claim 99 , wherein the first operation comprises bit level manipulation; and wherein the second operation comprises word level manipulation.