Multilevel Design and Verification of Hardware/Software Systems

System design can be viewed as a massively multidimensional optimization problem for which the solution set is only partially known. Experimental exploration of the design space is the only available approach. ´Stepwise refinement´ is an extremely efficient methodology if appropriate tools are available to evaluate partial designs modelled using various abstractions. Then major tradeoffs can be made at an early stage of the design process, evaluated and potentially modified. Time has come for a new approach to system design, including an integration of methodology and tools for the design of hardware and software. The projects presented here give a feeling for what can be gained in productivity and performance by multi-level system design and verification. The new flexibility provided by the combination of new methodology and more automated tools call for entirely new concepts and views on the design process, the role of the designer etc. In this paper, a coherent conceptual framework covering most of these aspect is developed and presented.