Dynamically Reconfigurable Processor for Floating Point Arithmetic

Recently, development of embedded processors is toward miniaturization and energy saving for ecology. On the other hand, high performance arithmetic circuits are required in a lot of application in science and technology. Dynamically reconfigurable processors have been developed to meet these requests. They can change circuit configuration according to instructions in program instantly during operations.This paper describes, a dynamically reconfigurable circuit for floating-point arithmetic is proposed. The arithmetic circuit consists of two single precision floating-point arithmetic circuits. It performs double precision floating-point arithmetic by reconfiguration. Dynamic reconfiguration changes circuit construction at one clock cycle during operation without stopping circuits. It enables reconfiguration of circuits in a few nano seconds. The proposed circuit is reconfigured in two modes. In first mode it performs one double precision floating-point arithmetic or else the circuit will perform two parallel operations of single precision floating-point arithmetic. The new system design reduces implementation area by reconfiguring common parts of each operation. It also increases the processing speed with a very little number of clocks.