HW/SW Implementation from Abstract Architecture Models

Early HW/SW codesign research concentrated on HW/SW partitioning, but without solving the problem of abstracting the hardware/software interfaces. Rather than using ad-hoc models of hardware as has been done with traditional design approaches, system-on-chip designs demand a well-thought-out approach to the hardware/software interface. Architecture models can abstract HW/SW interfaces at different abstraction levels such as data transfer, synchronization, interconnect, communication and finally HW/SW partitioning. These different abstraction levels correspond to different refinement processes that require specific cooperation between hardware and software designers. Separate SW and HW design methodologies do not meet the requirements of complex SoC design. Thus the key challenge is the creation of continuum between hardware platform and embedded software. The combination of ENIAC and ARTEMIS platform provides such a continuum and opens new vistas leading to master the ever growing complexity of embedded systems