System-Platform Simulation Model Applied to Performance Analysis of Multiprocessor Video Encoding

Platform-based design (PBD) has been introduced to cope with increasing costs in developing complex embedded systems such as multimedia applications. In this paper, we present a performance-aware model and methodology that provides a comprehensive software and hardware modelling and simulation framework at system-platform level. We apply the methodology for synthesizing and analyzing the performance of several concurrent implementations of a MPEG-4 video encoder on embedded multiprocessor hardware architectures. The analysis allows choosing an implementation that satisfies both the encoding requirements (frame rate) and the environment constraints (available bandwidth).