Force-directed scheduling in automatic data path synthesis

• Published in: 24th ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference pp. 195 - 202
• Main Authors: Paulin, P. G., Knight, J. P.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY, USA ACM 01-10-1987
• Series: ACM Conferences
• Subjects: Application specific integrated circuits; Automatic control; Costs; Hardware; Hardware > Electronic design automation > High-level and register-transfer level synthesis; Hardware > Electronic design automation > High-level and register-transfer level synthesis > Datapath optimization; Integrated circuit interconnections; Multiplexing; Permission; Processor scheduling; Scheduling algorithm; Size control; Theory of computation > Design and analysis of algorithms > Approximation algorithms analysis > Scheduling algorithms; Theory of computation > Design and analysis of algorithms > Online algorithms > Online learning algorithms > Scheduling algorithms; Theory of computation > Theory and algorithms for application domains > Machine learning theory > Reinforcement learning > Sequential decision making
• ISBN: 9780818607813; 0818607815
• ISSN: 0738-100X
• DOI: 10.1145/37888.37918

The HAL system performs data path synthesis using a new scheduling algorithm that is part of an interdependent scheduling and allocation scheme. This scheme uses an estimate of the hardware allocation to guide and optimize the scheduling subtask. The allocation information includes the number, type, speed and cost of hardware modules as well as the associated multiplexer and interconnect costs.
The iterative force-directed scheduling algorithm attempts to balance the distribution of operations that make use of the same hardware resources: Every feasible control step assignment is evaluated at each iteration, for all operations. The associated side-effects on all the predecessor and successor operations are taken into account. All the decisions are global. The algorithm has O(n8 complexity.
We review and compare existing scheduling techniques. Moderate and difficult examples are used to illustrate the effectiveness of the approach.