6533b821fe1ef96bd127c1c3

RESEARCH PRODUCT

A Dual-Core Coprocessor with Native 4D Clifford Algebra Support

Salvatore VitabileFilippo SorbelloSilvia FranchiniAntonio GentileGiorgio Vassallo

subject

Settore ING-INF/05 - Sistemi Di Elaborazione Delle InformazioniSpeedupCoprocessorComputer sciencebusiness.industryClifford algebraParallel computingComputer graphicsGeometric algebraSoftwareClifford algebra embedded coprocessors multi-core architectures FPGA prototyping medical imagingField-programmable gate arraybusinessFPGA prototype

description

Geometric or Clifford Algebra (CA) is a powerful mathematical tool that is attracting a growing attention in many research fields such as computer graphics, computer vision, robotics and medical imaging for its natural and intuitive way to represent geometric objects and their transformations. This paper introduces the architecture of CliffordCoreDuo, an embedded dual-core coprocessor that offers direct hardware support to four-dimensional (4D) Clifford algebra operations. A prototype implementation on an FPGA board is detailed. Experimental results show a 1.6× average speedup of CliffordCoreDuo in comparison with the baseline mono-core architecture. A potential cycle speedup of about 40× over Gaigen 2, a geometric algebra software library generator for general-purpose processors, is also demonstrated.

yearjournalcountryeditionlanguage
2012-09-012012 15th Euromicro Conference on Digital System Design
https://doi.org/10.1109/dsd.2012.2