Mapping Concurrent Applications onto Architectural Platforms

Abstract

Embedded system designers are faced with an expandingarray of challenges 1in both application andarchitecture design. One challenge is the task ofmodelling heterogeneous concurrent applications.Another is the task of finding a programming model forheterogeneous multiprocessor architectural platforms.Compounding each of these challenges is the task ofimplementing heterogeneous applications onheterogeneous architectures. We believe that the keyproblem underlying each of these challenges is themodelling of concurrency, and the key to modellingconcurrency is to capture concurrent communicationformally in models of computation. This chapter broadlyoutlines a disciplined approach to the design andimplementation of communication structures in embeddedapplications. Our approach combines the Network-on-Chipparadigm with the models of computation paradigm. Weuse models of computation to capture the communicationrequirements of an application as well as to abstractthe capabilities of a communication architecture. Then,application requirements and architectural capabilitiesare matched using a discipline based on Network-on-Chipprinciples. In this chapter we describe this approachand present a case study where a Click network routingapplication is implemented on a multiprocessorarchitecture using this discipline.