Title :
Hardware-software cosynthesis for digital systems
Author :
Gupta, Rajesh K. ; De Micheli, Glovanni
Author_Institution :
Center for Integrated Syst., Stanford Univ., CA, USA
Abstract :
As system design grows increasingly complex, the use of predesigned components, such as general-purpose microprocessors can simplify synthesized hardware. While the problems in designing systems that contain processors and application-specific integrated circuit chips are not new, computer-aided synthesis of such heterogeneous or mixed systems poses unique problems. The authors demonstrate the feasibility of synthesizing heterogeneous systems by using timing constraints to delegate tasks between hardware and software so that performance requirements can be met. System functionality is captured using the HardwareC hardware description language. The synthesis of an Ethernet-based network coprocessor is discussed as an example.<>
Keywords :
application specific integrated circuits; digital systems; microprocessor chips; systems analysis; Ethernet-based network coprocessor; HardwareC hardware description language; application-specific integrated circuit chips; computer-aided synthesis; digital systems; general-purpose microprocessors; heterogeneous systems; performance requirements; system design; system functionality; tasks; timing constraints; Costs; Digital systems; Embedded system; Hardware; High level synthesis; Integrated circuit synthesis; Process design; Real time systems; Software prototyping; Timing;
Journal_Title :
Design & Test of Computers, IEEE