Abstract: A chip design environment is disclosed which accepts application specific processing, memory and IO elements and declarative specification of function, cost and performance of peripheral, low-level and infrastructural elements and of overall design and generates synthesizable module RTLs and relevant place-and-route constraints. The generated elements include the network interconnecting all the elements, a programming memory consistency model and its coherence protocol, allocation and scheduling processes realizing run-time inference of optimal parallel execution and processes for control of coherence action and prefetch intensity, task-data migration, voltage-frequency scaling and power-clock gating. The environment employs knowledge bases, models to predict performance and to assign confidence scores to predictions and, in turn, the predictions to explore space of topology, architecture, composition, etc options.

Abstract: A chip design environment is disclosed which automates component requirements based on processes to provide a synthesized design. The system may simulate the synthesized design performance and may evaluate performance results with a learning controller to correct inefficiencies using predictive modeling based on confidence scores.

Abstract: A programmable fast packet switch testbed (10) for use in the evaluation of prototype architectures and traffic management algorithms is disclosed. The programmable switch (10) is arranged as an add-on peripheral to a conventional computer system including a host central processing unit (CPU) (2). The switch (10) includes a plurality of port processors (14) in communication with port interfaces (12); each of the port interfaces (12) is a conventional interface for high data rate communication, while the port processors (14) are programmable logic devices. The switch fabric is realized in a multiple slice fashion, by multiple programmable logic devices (18). A central arbiter (30), also realized in programmable logic, controls routing of cells within the switch (10).

Abstract: There is disclosed a scalable switch fabric architecture comprising: 1) an input switching stage having N inputs and N outputs operable to connect selected ones of the N inputs to selected ones of the N outputs; 2) an output switching stage having M inputs and M outputs operable to connect selected ones of the M inputs to selected ones of the M outputs; 3) a multiplexer stage having a plurality of W-bit input channels and a W-bit output channel, wherein the output channel is coupled to the M inputs of the output switching stage; and 4) a removable core switching stage having N inputs adapted for coupling to the N outputs of the input switching stage and having M outputs adapted for coupling to a first input channel of the multiplexer stage.