Athanas A new processing platform and high-level compiler are being developed that will significantly improve program execution times. Typical computationally intensive programs tend to spend nearly all of their execution time within a small fraction of the compiled executable code. Efforts to improve the performance of these tasks are best rewarded when focused on these frequently accessed portions. The new hardware and software will allow the configuration and fundamental operations of a core processing platform to adapt to the computationally intensive portions of a targeted application. The high-level language compiler is responsible for identifying the computationally dominant portions of an application, and for synthesizing hardware structures that can be dynamically loaded into the processing platform for subsequent execution. A general-purpose platform embracing these principles can reap the performance benefits of application- specific processors, and also retain a general purpose nature by accommodating a wide variety of tasks. Furthermore, computer architectures that adopt these techniques may become a cost- effective alternative to conventional high-performance computing platforms.
