Hardware-software co-design

Fig. 2 Summary of software-hardware co-execution solutions.

Hint

Hooking functions/instructions in binary applications:

• gh:dbhi/binhook

• gh:beehive-lab/mambo

• gh:dynamorio/dynamorio

Use cases:

• Running binaries with custom instructions on devices without hardware support.

• Replacing software routines with hardware accelerators, without modifying application sources.

• Switching drivers/implementations without recompiling the software application.

  • For instance, evaluating accelerators on target boards before the RTL is ready for synthesis.

• NEORV32 User Guide: Adding Custom Hardware Modules

• NEORV32 Datasheet

  • Stream Link Interface

  • Custom Functions Subsystem (CFS)

• gh:google/CFU-Playground

  • youtube: CFU Playground: Model-specific Acceleration on FPGAs - Timothy Callahan & Alan V. Green, Google

Fig. 3 gh:dbhi/vboard: virtual development board for HDL design.

Co-execution platform options:

• Workstation/laptop (amd64)

  • Native

  • QEMU user mode

  • QEMU system mode

• Single Board Computer (SBC)

• FPGA board (PS only)

• FPGA board (PS and PL)