Dynamically Optimizing FPGA Applications by Monitoring Temperature and Workloads

In the past, Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) circuits only contained a limited amount of logic and operated at a low frequency. Few applications running on FPGAs consumed excessive power. Today, the temperature of FPGAs are a major concern due to increased logic density and speed. Large applications with highly pipelined datapaths can ultimately generate more heat than the package can dissipate. For FPGAs that operate in controlled environments, heat sinks and fans can be used to effectively dissipate heat from the device. However, FPGA devices operating under harsher thermal conditions in outdoor environments, or in systems with malfunctioning cooling systems need a thermal management control system. To address this issue, we had previously devised a reconfigurable temperature monitoring system that gives feedback to the FPGA circuit using the measured junction temperature of the device. Using this feedback, we designed a novel dual frequency switching system that allows the FPG...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: VLSID
• Authors: Phillip H. Jones, Young H. Cho, John W. Lockwood
• Keywords: Computer Architecture, FPGA Circuit, Frequency Mechanism Workload, Maximum Junction Temperature, VLSID 2007