Reusable and Architecture-neutral Virtual Communication Interface for Embedded Systems

In this paper, a functional model of a virtual communication interface (VCI) for embedded systems is presented. It hides the underlying communication technology from the application. The communication bus can then be changed without worrying about its users and without the need to rewrite the application. The VCI is co-designed in hardware/software to improve performance considering architectural issues and the needs of the application. Communication buses widely used in embedded systems are used to test the applicability of this VCI. The experimental results demonstrate that with careful co-design, the VCI is not only reusable but also can remarkably improve the overall performance. Categories and Subject Descriptors C.3 [Special-purpose and Application-based Systems]: Real-time and embedded systems