IP-XACT extensions for Reconfigurable Computing

Many of today´s embedded multiprocessor systems are implemented as heterogeneous systems, consisting of hardware and software components. To automate the composition and integration of multiprocessor systems, the IP-XACT standard was defined to describe hardware IP blocks and (sub)systems. However, the IP-XACT standard does not provide sufficient means to express Reconfigurable Computing (RC) specific information, such as Hardware dependent Software (HdS) meta-data, which prevents automated integration. In this paper, we propose several IP-XACT extensions such that the HdS can be generated and integrated automatically. We validate these specific extensions and demonstrate the interoperability of the approach based on an H.264 decoder application case study. For this case study we achieved an overall 30.4% application-wise speed-up and we reduced the development time of HdS from days to a few seconds.