GB2484901A - Data processing unit with scalar processor, vector processor array, parity and FFT accelerator units - Google Patents

Abstract

A data processing unit comprises scalar processor 101, heterogeneous processor (HPU) 102 which includes heterogeneous controller unit (HCU) 120, vector processing array 122 including a plurality of vector processors 123, low density parity-code (LDPC) accelerator unit 140a and fast Fourier transform (FFT) accelerator unit 140b. The scalar processor executes a series of instructions which include instructions which are customized for execution on the HPU which may be operable in a single instruction multiple data (SIMD) configuration. When the instructions for execution on the HPU are encountered they are automatically forwarded to HCU. The HCU includes instruction decode unit (150; fig 9) to decode instructions and forward them to one of a plurality of sequencers (1550-155N; figure 9) for execution on a corresponding function unit; each sequencer may include a FIFO instruction queue in storage (1540-154N; fig 9). The data processing unit is for a data processing system which may include a cluster of these data processing units (521-52N; fig 5).

Description

DATA PROCESSING UNITS

The present invention relates to data processing units, for example for use in wireless communications systems.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A simplified wireless communications system is illustrated schematically in Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings. A transmitter I communicates with a receiver 2 over an air interface 3 using radio frequency signals. In digital radio wireless communications systems, a signal to be transmitted is encoded into a stream of data samples that represent the signal.

The data samples are digital values in the form of complex numbers. A simplified transmitter 1 is illustrated in Figure 2 of the accompanying drawings, and comprises a signal input 11, a digital to analogue converter 12, a modulator 13, and an antenna 14. A digital datastream is supplied to the signal input 11, and is converted into analogue form at a baseband frequency using the digital to analogue converter 12. The resulting analogue signal is used to modulate a carrier waveform having a higher frequency than the baseband signal by the modulator 13. The modulated signal is supplied to the antenna 14 for transmission over the air interface 3.

At the receiver 2, the reverse process takes place. Figure 3 illustrates a simplified receiver 2 which comprises an antenna 21 for receiving radio frequency signals, a demodulator 22 for demodulating those signals to baseband frequency, and an analogue to digital converter 23 which operates to convert such analogue baseband signals to a digital output datastream 24.

Since wireless communications device typically provide both transmission and reception functions, and that, generally, transmission and reception occur at different times, the same digital processing resources may be reused for both purposes.

In a packet-based system, the datastream is divided into Data Packets', each of which contains up to 100's of kilobytes of data. Each data packet generally comprises: I. A Preamble, used by the receiver to synchronise its decoding operation to the incoming signal.

2. A Header, which contains information about the packet such as its length and coding style.

3. The Payload, which is the actual data to be transferred.

4. A Checksum, which is computed from the entirety of the data and allows the receiver to verify that all data bits have been correctly received.

Each of these data packet sections must be processed and decoded in order to provide the original datastream to the receiver. Figure 4 illustrates that a packet processor 5 is provided in order to process a received datastream 24 into a decoded output datastream 58.

The different types of processing required by these sections of the packet and the complexity of the coding algorithms suggest that a software-based processing system is to be preferred, in order to reduce the complexity of the hardware. However, a pure software approach is difficult since each packet comprises a continuous stream of samples with no time gaps in between. As such, a pipelined hardware implementation may be preferred.

For multi-gigabit wireless communications, the baseband sample rate required is typically in the range of 1GHz to over 5GHz. This presents a problem when implementing the baseband processing in a digital device, since this sample rate is comparable to or higher than the clock rate of the processing circuits that are generally available. The number of processing cycles available per sample can then fall to a very low level, sometimes less than unity. Existing solutions to this problem have drawbacks as follows: 1. Run the baseband processing circuitry at high speed, equal to or greater than the sample rate: Operating CMOS circuits at GHz frequencies consumes excessive amounts of power, more than is acceptable in small, low-power, battery-operated devices. The design of such high frequency processing circuits is also very labour-intensive.

2. Decompose the processing into a large number of stages and implement a pipeline of hardware blocks, each of which perform only one section of the processing: Moving all the data through a large number of hardware units uses considerable power in the movement, in addition to the power consumed in the actual processing itself. In addition, the functions of the stages are quite specific and so flexibility in the processing algorithms is lost.

Existing solutions make use of a combination of (1) and (2) above to achieve the required processing performance.

An alternative approach is one of parallel processing; that is to split the stream of samples into a number of slower streams which are processed by an array of identical processor units, each operating at a clock frequency low enough to ease their design effort and avoid excessive power consumption. However, this approach also has drawbacks. If too many processors are used, the hardware overhead of instruction fetch and issue becomes undesirably large, and, therefore, inefficient. If processors are arranged-together into a Single Instruction Multiple data (SIMD) arrangement, then the latency of waiting for them to fill with data can exceed the upper limit for latency, as specified in the protocol standard being implemented.

An architecture with multiple processors communicating via shared memory can have the problem of contention for a shared memory resource. This is a particular disadvantage in a system that needs to process a continual stream of data and cannot tolerate delays in processing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a data processing unit comprising a scalar processor device, and a heterogeneous processor device connected to receive instruction information from the scalar processor, and to receive incoming data packets, and operable to process incoming data packets in accordance with received instruction information, wherein the heterogeneous processor device comprises a heterogeneous controller unit connected to receive instruction information from the scalar processor, and operable to output instruction information, an instruction sequencer connected to receive instruction information from the heterogeneous controller unit, and operable to output a sequence of instructions, and a plurality of heterogeneous function units, including a vector processor array including a plurality of vector processor elements operable to process received data items in accordance with instructions received from the instruction sequencer, a low-density parity-code (LDPC) accelerator unit connected to receive data items from the vector processor array, and operable, under control of the heterogeneous controller unit, to process such received data items and to transmit processed data items to the vector processor array, and a fast Fourier transform (FFT) accelerator unit connected to receive data items from the vector processor array, and operable, under control of the heterogeneous controller unit, to process such received data items and to transmit processed data items to the vector processor array, wherein the heterogeneous controller unit comprises a plurality of instruction dispatch units which are operable to deliver instructions to respective ones of the heterogeneous function units, in response to receipt of synchronous status signal from a heterogeneous function unit.

Each instruction dispatch unit may include a first-in-first-out buffer operable to store instructions for dispatch to the heterogeneous function units.

Each accelerator unit may have partitioned data memory associated therewith, such data memory having a direct memory access controller associated therewith, and the heterogeneous controller unit would then include an instruction dispatch unit for the direct memory access controller.

In one example, the heterogeneous controller unit is operable to detect incompatible synchronous status signals, and to control instruction dispatch upon detection of such incompatible signals. In such a case, the heterogeneous controller unit may be operable to detect an incompatible synchronous state signal in a predetermined time period following issuance of a previous synchronous state signal.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 is a simplified schematic view of a wireless communications system; Figure 2 is a simplified schematic view of a transmitter of the system of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a simplified schematic view of a receiver of the system of Figure 1; Figure 4 illustrates a data packet processor; Figure 5 illustrates a data packet processor including processing units embodying one aspect of the present invention; Figure 6 illustrates data packet processing by the data packet processor of Figure 5; Figure 7 illustrates a processing unit embodying one aspect of the present invention for use in the data packet processor of Figure 5; Figure 8 illustrates the processing unit of Figure 7 in more detail; Figure 9 illustrates a scalar processing unit and a heterogeneous controller unit of the processing unit of Figure 8; and Figure 10 illustrates data processing according to another aspect of the present invention, performed by the processing unit of Figure 7 to 9.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Figure 5 illustrates a data processor which includes a processing unit embodying one aspect of the present invention. Such a processor is suitable for processing a continual datastream, or data arranged as packets. Indeed, data within a data packet is also continual for the length of the data packet, or for part of the data packet.

The processor 5 includes a cluster of N physical processing units 52152N, hereafter referred to as PPUs. The FPUs 52152N receive data from a first data unit 51, and sends processed data to a second data unit 57. The first and second data units 51, 57 are hardware blocks that may contain buffering or data formatting or timing functions. In the example to be described, the first data unit 51 is connected to transfer data with the radio sections of a wireless communications device, and the second data unit is connected to transfer data with the user data processing sections of the device. It will be appreciated that the first and second data units 51, 57 are suitable for transferring data to be processed by the PPUs 52 with any appropriate data source or data sink. In the present example, in a receive mode of operation, data flows from the first data unit 51, through the processor array to the second data unit 57. In a transmit mode of operation, the data flow is in the opposite direction-that is, from the second data unit 57 to the first data unit 51 via that processing array.

The PPUs 52152N are under the control of a control processor 55, and make use of a shared memory resource 56. Data and control signals are transferred between the PFUs S2152N, the control processor 55, and the memory resource 56 using a bus system 54c.

It can be seen that the workload of processing a data stream from source to destination is divided N ways between the PPUs 521S2N on the basis of time-slicing the data. Each PPU then needs only 1/Nth of the performance that a single processor would have needed. This translates into simpler hardware design, lower clock speed, and lower overall power consumption. The control processor 55 and shared memory resource 56 may be provided in the device itself, or may be provided by one or more external units.

The control processor 55 has different capabilities to the PPUs S21S2N, since its tasks are more comparable to a general purpose processor running a body of control software. It may also be a degenerate control block with no software. It may therefore be an entirely different type of processor, as long as it can perform shared memory communications with the PPUs 52152N However, the control processor 55 may be simply another instance of a PPU, or it may be of the same type but with minor modifications suited to its tasks.

It should be noted that the bandwidth of the radio data stream is usually considerably higher than the unencoded user data it represents. This means that the first data unit 51, which is at the radio end of the processing, operates at high bandwidth, and the second data unit 57 operates at a lower bandwidth related to the stream of user data.

At the radio interface, the data stream is substantially continual within a data packet. In the digital baseband processing, the data stream does not have to be continual, but the average data rate must match that of the radio frequency datastream. This means that if the baseband processing peak rate is faster than the radio data rate, the baseband processing can be executed in a non-continual, burst-like fashion. In practise however, a large difference in processing rate will require more buffering in the first and second data units 51, 57 in order to match the rates, and this is undesirable both for the cost of the data buffer storage, and the latency of data being buffered for extended periods. Therefore, baseband processing should execute as near to continually as possible, and at a rate that needs to be only slightly faster than the rate of the radio data stream, in order to allow for small temporal gaps in the processing.

In the context of Figure 5, this means that data should be near-continually streamed either to or from the radio end of the processing (to and from the first data unit 51). In a receive mode, the high bandwidth stream of near-continual data is time sliced between the PPUs S2152N Consider the receiving case where high bandwidth radio sample data is being transferred from the first data unit 51 to the PPU cluster: In the simple case, a batch of radio data, being a fixed number of samples, is transferred to each PPU in turn, in round-robin sequence. This is illustrated for a received packet in Figure 6, for the case of a cluster of four P PUs.

Each PPU 521S2N receives 621, 622, 623, 624, 625, and 626 a portion of the packet data 62 from the incoming data stream 6. The received data portion is then processed 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, and 76, and output 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, and 86 to form a decoded data packet 8.

Each PPU 521S2N must have finished processing its previous batch of samples by the time it is sent a new batch. In this way, all N PPUs 52152N execute the same processing sequence, but their execution is out of phase' with each other, such that in combination they can accept a continuous stream of sample data.

In this simple receive case described above, each PPU 52152N produces decoded output user data, at a lower bandwidth than the radio data, and supplies that data to the second data unit 57. Since the processing is uniform, the data output from all N PPUs 52152N arrives at the data sink unit 57 in the correct order, so as to produce a decoded data packet! In a simple transmit mode case, this arrangement is simply reversed, with the PPUs 52152N accepting user data from the second data unit 57 and outputting encoded sample data to the first data unit 51 for radio transmission.

The data processor includes hierarchical data networks which are designed to localise high bandwidth transactions and to maximise bandwidth with minimal data latency and power dissipation. These networks make use of an addressing scheme which is common to both the local data storage and to processor wide data storage, such as the local memory 56, in order to simplify the programming model.

However, wireless data processing is more complex than in the simple case described above. The processing will not always be uniform -it will depend on the section of the data packet being processed, and may depend on factors determined by the data packet itself.

For example, the Header section of a received packet may contain information on how to process the following payload. The processing algorithms may need to be modified during reception of the packet in response to degradation of the wireless signal. On the completion of receiving a packet, an acknowledgement packet may need to be immediately transmitted in response. These and other examples of more complex processing demand that the PPUs S2152N have a flexibility of scheduling and operation that is driven by the software running on them, and not just a simple pattern of operation that is fixed in hardware.

Under this more complex processing regime, the following considerations must be taken into account: * A control process, thread or agent defines the overall tasks to be performed. It may modify the priority of tasks depending on data-driven events. It may have a list of several tasks to be performed at the same time, by the available PPUs 521..52N of the cluster.

The data of a received packet is split into a number of sections. The lengths of the sections may vary, and some sections may be absent in some packets. Furthermore, the sections often comprise blocks of data of a fixed number of samples. These blocks of sample data are termed Symbols' in this description. It is highly desirable that all the data for any symbol be processed in its entirety by one PPU 52. . 52N of the cluster, since splitting a symbol between two PPUs 52152N would involve undue communication between the

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PPUs 52152N in order to process that symbol. In some cases it is also desirable that several symbols be processed together in one PPU 52152N for example if the Header section 61 (Figure 6) of the data packet comprises several symbols. The PPUs 52152N must in general therefore be able to dictate how much data they receive in any given processing phase from the data source unit 51, since this quantity may need to vary throughout the processing of a packet.

* Non-uniform processing conditions could potentially result in out of order processed data being available from the PPUs S2152N In order to prevent such possibility, a mechanism is provided to ensure that processed data are provided to the first data unit 51 (in a transmit mode) or to the second data unit 57 (in a receive mode), in the correct order.

* The processing algorithms for one section of a data packet may depend on previous sections of the data packet. This means that PPUs 52152N must communicate with each other about the exact processing to be performed on subsequent data. This is in addition to, and may be a modification of, the original task specified by the control process, thread, or agent.

* The combined processing power of the entire N PPUs 52152N in the cluster must be at least sufficient for handling the wireless data stream in that mode that demands the greatest processing resources. In some situations, however, the data stream may require a lighter processing load, and this may result in PPUs 52152N completing their processing of a data batch ahead of schedule. It is highly desirable that any PPU 521..S2N with no immediate work load to execute be able to enter an inactive, low-power sleep' mode, from which it can be awoken when a workload becomes available.

The cluster arrangement provides the software with the ability for each of the PPUs 52152N in the cluster to collectively decide the optimal DSP algorithms and modes in which the system should be placed in. This reduction of the collective information is available for the lower MAC layer processing via the SCN network. This localised processing and reduction hierarchy provides the MAC with the optimal level of control of the PHY DSP.

A PPU is illustrated in Figure 7, and comprises scalar processor unit 101 (which could be a 32-bit processor) closely connected with a heterogeneous processor unit (HPU) 102. High bandwidth real time data is coupled directly into and out of the HPU 102, via a system data network (SDN) 106a and 106b (54a and 54b in Figure 5). Scalar processor data and control data are transferred using a PPU-SMP (PPU-symmetrical multiprocessor) network PSN 104, (54c in Figure 5).

Data are substantially continually dispatched, in real time, into the HPU 102, in sequence via the SDN 106a, and are then processed. Processed data exit from the HPU 102 on the SDN 106b.

The scalar processor unit 101 operates by executing a series of instructions defined in a high level program. Embedded in this program are specific coprocessor instructions that are customised for computation within the HPU 102. The scalar unit 101 is connected in such a way that these coprocessor instructions are routed automatically to a heterogeneous controller unit (HCU) (120 in Figure 8) within the HPU 102, which handles control of the HPU 102.

Figure 8 illustrates the processing unit of Figure 7 in more detail. The scalar processor unit 101 comprises a scalar processor 110, a data cache 111 for temporarily storing data to be transferred with the PU-SMP network 104, 105, and a co-processor interface 112 for providing interface functions to the heterogeneous processor unit 102.

The HPU 102 comprises the heterogeneous controller unit (HCU) 120 for directly controlling a number of heterogeneous function units (HFUs) and a number of connected hierarchical data networks. The total number of HFUs in the HPU 102 is scalable depending on required performance. The HFUs are provided by a number of different processing units, as described below.

The HPU 102 contains a programmable vector processor array (VPA) 122 which comprises a plurality of vector processor units (VPUs) 123. The HPU also includes a number of fixed function Accelerator Units (AUs) 140a, 140b, and a number of memory to memory DMA (direct memory access) units 135, 136. The VPA, AUs, and DMA units provide the HFUs mentioned above.

The HCU 120 is shown in more detail in Figure 9, and comprises an instruction decode unit 150, which is operable to decode (at least partially) instructions and to forward them to one of a number of parallel sequencers 1550...1554, each controlling its own heterogeneous function unit (HFU). Each sequencer has storage 1540...1544 for a number of queued dispatched instructions ready for execution in a local dispatch FIFO buffer. Using a chosen selection from a number of synchronous status signals (SSS), each HFU sequencer can trigger execution of the next queued instruction stored in another HFU dispatch FIFO buffer.

Referring back to Figure 8, the VPA 122 comprises a plurality of vector processor units VPUs 123 arranged in a single instruction multiple data (SIMD) parallel processing architecture. Each VPU 123 comprises a vector processor element (VPE) 130 which includes a plurality of processing elements (PE5) 1301...1304. The PEs in a VPE are arranged in a SIMD within a register configuration (known as a SWAR configuration). The PEs have a high bandwidth data path interconnect function unit so that data items can be exchanged within the SWAR configuration between PEs.

Each VPE 130 is closely coupled to a VPU partitioned data memory (VPU-PDM) 132 subsystem via an optimised high bandwidth VPU network (VPUN) 131. The VPUN 131 is optimised for data movement operations into the localised VPU-PDM 132, and to various other localised networks. One such localised data network is an Accelerator Data Network (ADN) 139 which is provided in order to allow data to be transferred between the VPUs 123 and theAUs 140,141.

The VPE 130 addresses its local VPU-PDM 132 using an address scheme that is compatible with the overall hierarchical address scheme. The VPE 130 uses a vector SIMD address (VSA) to transfer data with its local VPU-PDM 1 32 A VSA is supplied to all of the VPUs 123 in the VPA 122, such that all of the VPUs access respective local memory with the same address. A VSA is an internal address which allows addressing of the VPU-PDM only, and does not specify which HFU or VPE is being addressed.

Adding additional address bits to the basic VSA forms a heterogeneous MIMO address (HMA). A HMA identifies a memory location in a particular heterogeneous function unit HFU, and again is compatible with the overall system-level addressing scheme. HMAs are used to address specific memory in a specific HFU of a PPU 52.

The VSA and HMA are compatible with the overall system addressing scheme, which means that in order to address a memory location inside an HFU of a particular PPU, the system merely adds PPU-identifying bits to an HMA to produce a system-level address for accessing the memory concerned. The resulting system-level address is unique in the system-level addressing scheme, and is compatible with other system-level addresses, such as those for the local shared memory 56.

Each PPU has a unique address range within the system-level addresses.

Since all the HFU5 are uniquely addressable, and have access to all other HFUs and PDMs in the HPU 102, stored data items are uniquely addressable, and, therefore, can be moved amongst these units using direct memory access (DMA).

DMA units 135, 136 are provided and are arranged such that they may be programmed as the other HPUs by the HCU 120 from instructions dispatched from the SU 101 using instructions specifically targeted at each unit individually. The DMA units 135, 136 can be programmed to add the appropriate address fields so that data can automatically be moved through the hierarchies.

Since the DMA units in the HFU 102 use HMAs they can be instructed by the HCU 120 to move data between the various HFU, PDM and SDN Networks. A parallel pipeline of sequential computational tasks can then be routed seamlessly through the HFUs by executing a series of DMA instructions, followed by execution of appropriate HFU instructions. Thus, these instruction pipelines run autonomously and concurrently.

The DMA units 135, 136 are managed explicitly by the HCU 120 with respective HFU dispatch FIFO buffers (as is the case for the VPU's PDM). The DMA units 13, 136 can be integrated into specific HFU5, such as the accelerator units 140a, 140b, and can share the same dispatch FIFO buffer as that HFU.

Instructions are issued to the VPA 122 in the form of Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW) microinstructions by a vector micro-coded controller (VMC) within the Instruction decode unit 150 of the HCU 120. The VMC is shown in more detail in Figure 10, and includes an instruction decoder 181, which receives instruction information 180. The instruction decoder 181 derives an instruction addresses from received instruction information, and passes those derived addresses to an instruction descriptor store 182. The instruction descriptor store 182 uses the received instruction addresses to access a store of instruction descriptors, and passes the descriptors indicated by the received instruction addresses to a code sequencer 183. The code sequencer 183 translates the instruction descriptors into microcode addresses for use by a microcode store 184. The microcode store 184 forms multi-cycle VLIW micro-sequenced instructions defined by the received microcode addresses, and outputs the compieted VLIW 186 to the sequencer 155 (Figure 9) appropriate to the HFU being instructed. The microcode store can be programmed to expand such VLIWs into a long series of repeated vectorised instructions that operate on sequences of addresses in the VPU-PDM 132. The VMC is thus able to extract significant parallel efficiency of control and thereby reduce instruction bandwidth from the PPU SU 101.

In order to ensure that instructions for a specific HFU only execute on data after the previous computation or after a DMA operation has terminated, a selection of synchronous status signals (SS Signals) are provided that are used indicate the status of execution of each HFU to other HFUs. These signals are used to start execution of an instruction that has been halted in another HFU's instruction dispatch FIFO buffer. This, one HFU can be caused to await the end of processing of an instruction in another HFU before commencing its own instruction processing.

The selection of which synchronous status to use is under program control, and the status is passed as one of the parameters with the instruction for the specific HFU. This allows many instructions to be dispatched into HFU dispatch FIFO buffers ahead of the execution of that instruction. This guarantees that each stage of processing will wait until the data is ready for that HFU. Since the vector instructions in the HFUs can last many cycles, it is likely that the instruction dispatch time will be very short compared to the actual execution time. Since many instructions can wait in each HFU dispatch FIFO buffer, the HFUs can optimally execute concurrently without the need for interaction with the SU 101 or any other HFU except for the arrival completion of the data to be processed.

A group of synchronous status signals are connected into the SUIOI both via interrupt mechanisms and via an HPU Status (HPU-STA) signal. This provides synchronisation with SU 101 processes and the HFUs. These are collectively known as SU-SS signals.

Another group of synchronous status signals are connected to the SDN Network and PSN network interfaces. This provides synchronisation across the SoC such that system wide DMAs can be made synchronous with the HPU.

Another group of Synchronous Status Signals are connected to programmable timer hardware 153, both local and global to the SoC. This provides a method for accurately timing the start of a processing task and control of DMA of data around the SoC.

Some of the synchronous status signals can be programmed to map onto to the HPU power saving controls (HPU-PSC). These signals can switch the VPUs and AUs on and off, in various power saving modes, as data is passed to them. These are used for fine grain control of power saving modes.

A combination of FFT Accelerator Units, LDPC Accelerator Units and Vector Processor Units are used to offload optimally different sequential stages of computation of an algorithm to the appropriate optimised HFU. Thus the HFU's that constitute the HPU 102 operate automatically and optimally on data in a strict sequential manner described by a software program created using conventional software tools.

The status of the HPU 102 can be read back using instructions issued through the co-processor interface (CPI) 112. Depending on which instructions are used, various status conditions can be returned to the SU 101 to direct the program flow of the SU 101.

Figure 11 illustrates an example instruction sequence which demonstrates the sequential order of instruction dispatch into parallel execution unit FIFO buffers, and the subsequent sequential chaining of parallel execution units using the synchronous status.

An entire code sequence is dispatched into the heterogeneous function unit dispatch FIFO buffers before complete execution. This frees the SU 101 to proceed with other house-keeping operations in parallel with the HFU's 102 execution.

The code sequence of Figure 11 illustrates optimisation of the execution order. Sequence illustrates an execution order without optimisation, whilst sequence 202 illustrates that optimisation can be achieved by moving two lines of code (VPU_MACRO_0). Execution time is sign ificantly reduced as the VPU 123 becomes fully utilized. The ease of which this re-ordering is applied is due to the linking of the instructions with the synchronous status.

Claims (8)

1. CLAIMS: 1. A data processing unit comprising: a scalar processor device; and a heterogeneous processor device connected to receive instruction information from the scalar processor, and to receive incoming data packets, and operable to process incoming data packets in accordance with received instruction information, wherein the heterogeneous processor device comprises: a heterogeneous controller unit connected to receive instruction information from the scalar processor, and operable to output instruction information; an instruction sequencer connected to receive instruction information from the heterogeneous controller unit, and operable to output a sequence of instructions; and a plurality of heterogeneous function units, including: a vector processor array including a plurality of vector processor elements operable to process received data items in accordance with instructions received from the instruction sequencer; a low-density parity-code (LDPC) accelerator unit connected to receive data items from the vector processor array, and operable, under control of the heterogeneous controller unit, to process such received data items and to transmit processed data items to the vector processor array; and a fast Fourier transform (FFT) accelerator unit connected to receive data items from the vector processor array, and operable, under control of the heterogeneous controller unit, to process such received data items and to transmit processed data items to the vector processor array, wherein the heterogeneous controller unit comprises a plurality of instruction dispatch units which are operable to deliver instructions to respective ones of the heterogeneous function units, in response to receipt of synchronous status signals from a heterogeneous function unit.
2. 2. A data processing unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein each instruction dispatch unit includes a first-in-first-out buffer operable to store instructions for dispatch to the heterogeneous function units.
3. 3. A data processing unit as claimed in claim I or 2, wherein each accelerator unit has partitioned data memory associated therewith, such data memory having a direct memory access controller associated therewith, and wherein the heterogeneous controller unit includes an instruction dispatch unit for the direct memory access controller.
4. 4. A data processing unit as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the heterogeneous controller unit is operable to detect incompatible synchronous status signals and to control instruction dispatch upon detection of such incompatible signals.
5. 5. A data processing unit as claimed in claim 4, wherein the heterogeneous controller unit is operable to detect an incompatible synchronous state signal, in a predetermined time period following issuance of a previous synchronous state signal.
6. 6. A data packet processing system comprising a data processing unit as claimed in any one of the preceding claims.
7. 7. A wireless communications device comprising an RF transceiver, and a data processing unit as claimed in any one of claims I to 5, operable to transfer data packets with the RF transceiver.
8. 8. A device substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as shown in, Figures 5 to 10 of the accompanying drawings.