Microarchitectural Transformations Using Elasticity

Abstract

Elasticity is a paradigm that tolerates the variations in computation and communication delays. By applying elastic transformations that allow varying the original timing, circuits can be optimized beyond the conventional rigid transformations that do not modify the external timing. Pipelining is one of the classical techniques to improve the throughput of a circuit. This article reveals how elasticity can be effectively and practically used to derive pipelined circuits by using correct-by-construction transformations that can be fully automated. Two designs, one of them industrial, are used to demonstrate how the area-performance trade-off can be explored using elasticity.