A codesign back-end approach for embedded system design

Abstract

Continuous advances in processor and ASIC technologies enable the integration of more and more complex embedded systems. Since their implementations generally require the use of heterogeneous resources (e.g., processor cores, ASICs) in one system with stringent design constraints, the importance of hardware/software codesign methodologies increases steadily. Interfacing heterogeneous hardware and software components together through a communication structure is particularly error prone and time consuming. Hence, on the basis of a generic architecture dedicated to telecommunication and multimedia applications, we propose an extended communication synthesis method that provides characterization of communications and their implementation schemes in the target architecture. This method takes place after the partitioning and scheduling phase and may constitute the basis of a back-end of a codesign framework leading to HW/SW integration. © 2000 ACM.