Title: Hardware/software codesign of on-chip communication architecture for application-specific multiprocessor system-on-chip

Authors: Nacer-Eddine Zergainoh, Amer Baghdadi, Ahmed Jerraya

Addresses: TIMA Laboratory National Polytechnique Institute of Grenoble, 46, Avenue Felix Viallet, 38031 Grenoble Cedex, France. ' ENST Bretagne, Electronics Department, Technopole Brest Iroise, CS 83818, 29238 Brest Cedex 3, France. ' TIMA Laboratory National Polytechnique Institute of Grenoble, 46, Avenue Felix Viallet, 38031 Grenoble Cedex, France

Abstract: System-on-chip (SoC) is developing as a new paradigm in electronic system design. This allows an entire hardware/software system to be built on a single chip, using predesigned components. This paper examines the achievements and future of novel approach and flow for an efficient design of application-specific multiprocessor system-on-chip (called GAM-SoC). The approach is based on a generic architecture model, which is used as a template throughout the design process. The key characteristics of this model are its great modularity, flexibility and scalability, which make it reusable for a large class of applications. In the flow, architectural parameters are first extracted from a high-level system specification and then used to instantiate architectural components, such as processors, memory modules, IP-hardware blocks and on-chip communication networks. The flow includes the generation of hardware/software wrappers that adapts the processor to the on-chip communication network in an application-specific way. The feasibility and effectiveness of this approach are illustrated by significant demonstration examples.

Keywords: component-based design; generic architecture model; systematic design methodology; on-chip communication wrappers; AHB-AMBA; multiprocessor SoC design; component reuse; system-on-chip; application-specific multiprocessors; hardware-software codesign.

DOI: 10.1504/IJES.2005.008813

International Journal of Embedded Systems, 2005 Vol.1 No.1/2, pp.112 - 124

Published online: 26 Jan 2006 *

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