Component-based specification for Multi-Processor System-on-Chip design

This paper presents a component-based design approach in modeling Multi-Processor Systems-on-Chip (MPSoC). As a component-based specification, SaveComp Component Model (SaveCCM) component technology was employed. In contrast to widely used component-based technologies, SaveCCM is light-weighted, HW/SW platform-independent and considers specific non-functional constraints inherent in heterogeneous MPSoC domain, e.g. deadline, memory consumption or WCET. In order to efficiently describe a class of dataflow applications usually present in embedded systems domain, e.g. image or signal processing algorithms, the research method presented in this paper introduces additional extensions to the SaveCCM model. SaveCCM specification is further synthesized to Transaction Level Model (TLM) to evaluate different MPSoC design options and eliminate possible bottlenecks in early stages of design. TLM was automatically generated using Embedded Systems Environment (ESE) toolset. In order to enable the ESE design flow, SaveCCM specification is first transformed into ESE behavioral model. As a case study, JPEG encoder application was implemented in MPSoC platform based upon the SaveCCM specification using the execution time quality attribute. Design space exploration results are presented and given further evaluation.