Hardware-software cosynthesis for digital systems (1993)

by R K Gupta, G De Micheli
Venue:IEEE Design & Test Comput
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Hardware-software co-design of embedded systems

by Wayne H. Wolf - PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE , 1994
"... This paper surveys the design of embedded computer systems, which use software running on programmable computers to im-plement system functions. Creating an embedded computer system which meets its performance, cost, and design time goals is a hardware-software co-design problewhe design of the hard ..."
Abstract - Cited by 179 (8 self) - Add to MetaCart
This paper surveys the design of embedded computer systems, which use software running on programmable computers to im-plement system functions. Creating an embedded computer system which meets its performance, cost, and design time goals is a hardware-software co-design problewhe design of the hard-ware and software components influence each other. This paper emphasizes a historical approach to show the relationships be-tween well-understood design problems and the as-yet unsolved problems in co-design. We describe the relationship between hard-ware and sofhvare architecture in the early stages of embedded system design. We describe analysis techniques for hardware and software relevant to the architectural choices required for hard-ware-software co-design. We also describe design and synthesis techniques for co-design and related problems.

ISDL: An Instruction Set Description Language for Retargetability

by George Hadjiyiannis, Silvina Hanono, Srinivas Devadas , 1997
"... We present the Instruction Set Description Language, ISDL, a machine description language used to describe target architectures to a retargetable compiler. A retargetable compiler is capable of compiling application code into machine code for different processors. The features and flexibility of ISD ..."
Abstract - Cited by 114 (4 self) - Add to MetaCart
We present the Instruction Set Description Language, ISDL, a machine description language used to describe target architectures to a retargetable compiler. A retargetable compiler is capable of compiling application code into machine code for different processors. The features and flexibility of ISDL enable the description of vastly different architectures such as an ASIP VLIW processor and a commercial DSP microprocessor. For instance, unlike other machine description languages, ISDL explicitly supports constraints which define valid operation groupings within an instruction, increasing the range of specifiable architectures. We have written a tool which, given an ISDL description of a processor, can automatically generate an assembler for it. Ongoing work includes the development of an automatic code-generator generator. ISDL: An Instruction Set Description Language for Retargetability 2 DSP Core Program ROM RAM ASIC or ASIP Peripherals Figure 1: A heterogeneous system-on-a-chip 1...

MOGAC: A Multiobjective Genetic Algorithm for Hardware-Software Co-Synthesis of Distributed Embedded Systems

by Robert P. Dick, Niraj K. Jha , 1998
"... In this paper, we present a hardware-software cosynthesis system, called MOGAC, that partitions and schedules embedded system specifications consisting of multiple periodic task graphs. MOGAC synthesizes real-time heterogeneous distributed architectures using an adaptive multiobjective genetic algor ..."
Abstract - Cited by 111 (8 self) - Add to MetaCart
In this paper, we present a hardware-software cosynthesis system, called MOGAC, that partitions and schedules embedded system specifications consisting of multiple periodic task graphs. MOGAC synthesizes real-time heterogeneous distributed architectures using an adaptive multiobjective genetic algorithm that can escape local minima. Price and power consumption are optimized while hard real-time constraints are met. MOGAC places no limit on the number of hardware or software processing elements in the architectures it synthesizes. Our general model for bus and point-to-point communication links allows a number of link types to be used in an architecture. Application-specific integrated circuits consisting of multiple processing elements are modeled. Heuristics are used to tackle multi-rate systems, as well as systems containing task graphs whose hyperperiods are large relative to their periods. The application of a multiobjective optimization strategy allows a single cosynthesis run to ...
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System Level Hardware/Software Partitioning Based on Simulated Annealing and Tabu Search

by Petru Eles, Zebo Peng, Krzysztof Kuchcinski, Alexa Doboli , 1997
"... This paper presents two heuristics for automatic hardware/software partitioning of system level specifications. Partitioning is performed at the granularity of blocks, loops, subprograms, and processes with the objective of performance optimization with a limited hardware and software cost. We defin ..."
Abstract - Cited by 104 (12 self) - Add to MetaCart
This paper presents two heuristics for automatic hardware/software partitioning of system level specifications. Partitioning is performed at the granularity of blocks, loops, subprograms, and processes with the objective of performance optimization with a limited hardware and software cost. We define the metric values for partitioning and develop a cost function that guides partitioning towards the desired objective. We consider minimization of communication cost and improvement of the overall parallelism as essential criteria during partitioning. Two heuristics for hardware /software partitioning, formulated as a graph partitioning problem, are presented: one based on simulated annealing and the other on tabu search. Results of extensive experiments, including real-life examples, show the clear superiority of the tabu search based algorithm. Keywords: Hardware/software partitioning, Co-synthesis, Iterative improvement heuristics, Simulated annealing, Tabu search * This work has been p...

Hardware/Software Co-Design

by Giovanni De Micheli, Rajesh K. Gupta - IEEE MICRO , 1997
"... ... This paper introduces the reader to various aspects of co-design. We highlight the commonalities and point out the differences in various co-design problems in some application areas. Co-design issues and their relationship to classical system implementation tasks are discussed to help the reade ..."
Abstract - Cited by 92 (0 self) - Add to MetaCart
... This paper introduces the reader to various aspects of co-design. We highlight the commonalities and point out the differences in various co-design problems in some application areas. Co-design issues and their relationship to classical system implementation tasks are discussed to help the reader develop a perspective on modern digital system design that relies on computer-aided design (CAD) tools and methods.
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Hardware-Software Co-Synthesis of Distributed Embedded System

by Wayne Wolf , 1997
"... This article describes a new hardware-software cosynthesis algorithm that takes advantage of the structure inherent in an object-oriented specification. The algorithm creates a distributed system implementation with arbitrary topology, using the object-oriented structure to parti-tion functionality ..."
Abstract - Cited by 87 (1 self) - Add to MetaCart
This article describes a new hardware-software cosynthesis algorithm that takes advantage of the structure inherent in an object-oriented specification. The algorithm creates a distributed system implementation with arbitrary topology, using the object-oriented structure to parti-tion functionality in addition to scheduling and allocating processes. Process partitioning is an especially important optimization for such systems because the specification will not, in general, take into account the process structure required for efficient execution on the distributed engine. The object-oriented specification naturally provides both coarse-grained and fine-grained partitions of the system. Our algorithm uses that multilevel structure to guide synthesis. Experimental results show that our algorithm takes advantage of the object-oriented specification to quickly converge on high-quality implementations.

Hardware-Software Co-Design of Embedded Reconfigurable Architectures

by Yanbing Li, Tim Callahan, Ervan Darnell, Randolph Harr, Uday Kurkure, Jon Stockwood , 2000
"... In this paper we describe a new hardware/software partitioning approach for embedded reconfigurable architectures consisting of a general-purpose processor (CPU), a dynamically reconfigurable datapath (e.g. an FPGA), and a memory hierarchy. We have developed a framework called Nimble that automatica ..."
Abstract - Cited by 84 (2 self) - Add to MetaCart
In this paper we describe a new hardware/software partitioning approach for embedded reconfigurable architectures consisting of a general-purpose processor (CPU), a dynamically reconfigurable datapath (e.g. an FPGA), and a memory hierarchy. We have developed a framework called Nimble that automatically compiles system-level applications specified in C to executables on the target platform. A key component of this framework is a hardware/software partitioning algorithm that performs finegrained partitioning (at loop and basic-block levels) of an application to execute on the combined CPU and datapath. The partitioning algorithm optimizes the global application execution time, including the software and hardware execution times, communication time and datapath reconfiguration time. Experimental results on real applications show that our algorithm is effective in rapidly finding close to optimal solutions.
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The Chinook Hardware/Software Co-Synthesis System

by Pai H. Chou, Ross B. Ortega, Gaetano Borriello - In International Symposium on System Synthesis , 1995
"... Designers of embedded systems are facing ever tighter constraints on design time, but computer aided design tools for embedded systems have not kept pace with these trends. The Chinook co-synthesis system addresses the automation of the most time-consuming and error-prone tasks in embedded controlle ..."
Abstract - Cited by 70 (1 self) - Add to MetaCart
Designers of embedded systems are facing ever tighter constraints on design time, but computer aided design tools for embedded systems have not kept pace with these trends. The Chinook co-synthesis system addresses the automation of the most time-consuming and error-prone tasks in embedded controller design, namely: the synthesis of interface hardware and software needed to integrate system components; the migrationof functions between processors or custom logic; and the co-simulation of the design before, during, and after synthesis. This paper describes the principal elements of Chinook and discuss its application to a variety of embedded designs. 1
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Interface co-synthesis techniques for embedded systems

by Pai Chou, Ross B. Ortega, Gaetano Borriello - In International Conference on Computer-Aided Design , 1995
"... A key aspect of the synthesis of embedded systems is the automatic integration of system components. This entails the derivation of both the hardware and software interfaces that will bind these elements together and permit them to communicate correctly and efficiently. Without the auto-matic synthe ..."
Abstract - Cited by 66 (11 self) - Add to MetaCart
A key aspect of the synthesis of embedded systems is the automatic integration of system components. This entails the derivation of both the hardware and software interfaces that will bind these elements together and permit them to communicate correctly and efficiently. Without the auto-matic synthesis of these interfaces, designers are not able to fully simulate and evaluate their systems. Frequently, they are discouraged from exploring the design space of dif-ferent hardware/software partitions because practical con-cerns mandate minimizing changes late in the design cy-cle, thus leading to more costly implementations than nec-essary. This paper presents a set of techniques that form the basis of a comprehensive solution to the synthesis of hardware/software interfaces. Software drivers and glue logic are generated to connect processors to peripheral devices, hardware co-processors, or communication inter-faces while meeting bandwidth and performance require-ments. We use as examples a set of devices that communi-cate over an infrared local communications network (high-lighting a video wrist-watch display) to explain our tech-niques and the need for design space exploration tools for embedded systems. 1

A Decade of Hardware/Software Codesign

by Wayne Wolf , 2003
"... Hardware/software codesign has been a recognized research field for about a decade. Within that time, it has moved from an emerging discipline to a mainstream technology. ..."
Abstract - Cited by 62 (0 self) - Add to MetaCart
Hardware/software codesign has been a recognized research field for about a decade. Within that time, it has moved from an emerging discipline to a mainstream technology.