An operating system for custom computing machines based on the Xputer paradigm

Abstract

The paper presents an operating system (OS) for custom computing machines (CCMs) based on the Xputer paradigm. Custom computing tries to combine traditional computing with programmable hardware, attempting to gain from the benefits of both adaptive software and optimized hardware. The OS running as an extension to the actual host OS allows a greater flexibility in deciding what parts of the application should run on the configurable hardware with structural code and what on the host-hardware with conventional software. This decision can be taken late - at run-time - and dynamically, in contrast to early partitioning and deciding at compile-time as used currently on CCMs. Thus the CCM can be used concurrently by multiple users or applications without knowledge of each other. This raises programming and using CCMs to levels close to modem OSes for sequential von Neumann processors.