Optimizing Soft Vector Processing in FPGA-Based Embedded Systems

Soft vector processors can augment and extend the capability of FPGA-based embedded systems-on-chip such as the Xilinx Zynq. However, configuring and optimizing the soft processor for best performance is hard. We must consider architectural parameters such as precision, vector lane count, vector length, chunk size, and DMA scheduling to ensure efficient execution of code on the soft vector processing platform. To simplify the design process, we develop a compiler framework and an autotuning runtime that splits the optimization into a combination of static and dynamic passes that map data-parallel computations to the soft processor. We compare and contrast implementations running on the scalar ARM processor, the embedded NEON hard vector engine, and low-level streaming Verilog designs with the VectorBlox MXP soft vector processor. Across a range of data-parallel benchmarks, we show that the MXP soft vector processor can outperform other organizations by up to 4 × while saving ≈ 10% dynamic power. Our compilation and runtime framework is also able to outperform the gcc NEON vectorizer under certain conditions by explicit generation of NEON intrinsics and performance tuning of the autogenerated data-parallel code. When constrained by IO bandwidth, soft vector processors are even competitive with spatial Verilog implementations of computation.