UDC 004.31
ASSOCIATIVE COPROCESSOR MODULE BASED ON FPGA FORSPECIALIZED COMPUTER SYSTEMS
A. I. Martyshkin, PhD (technical sciences), associate Professor at the Department of computers and systems, PSTU, Penza; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The paper considers the possibility of implementing a module of associative coprocessor by modern element base for specialized computer systems. The aim of the article is the development and study of associative co-processor module on FPGA, for specialized computing, for example, multi-processor, systems, performing associative function and data storage functions. The object of research and development of this article is an associative coprocessor based on FPGA. The search operation is widely used by users and systems for different purposes. However, this operation is one of the most labor-intensive and time-consuming when implemented in traditional way, when search data is sequentially read from RAM to CPU, where they perform appropriate operations. The paper proposes associative co-processor connected to PCI bus of a computer system, providing search and comparison of «more – less» simultaneously in 32 words pre-loaded in associative memory. Finally, conclusions have been made. The use of VHDL language as a universal means of hardware description of integrated circuits provides the flexibility of the project and the ease of debugging the operation of the device. Modeling the associative co-processor was carried out in CAD Web pack ISE of Xilinx company. This allows to evaluate the correct operation of hardware coprocessor in the composition of computing systems without building actual layout. Introduction efficiency of the module is assured by the fact that the coprocessor performs time-consuming operation to search for and compare data and thus relieves CPU and increases the performance of computing system as a whole. The results obtained
in the article can find application in search engines for different purposes: servers, databases, search machines used at stations, airports and for fast implementation of operating systems search tasks.
Key words: module, associative memory, addressing, coprocessor, computer system, memory cell, fixation reactions, analyzer of multiple coincidence, memory addressing, bus interface, hardware implementation, priority analyzer, write cycle, read cycle.