ABSTRACT Title of dissertation: DATAFLOW INTEGRATION AND SIMULATION TECHNIQUES FOR DSP SYSTEM DESIGN TOOLS

System-level modeling, simulation, and synthesis using dataflow models of computation are widespread in electronic design automation (EDA) tools for digi-tal signal processing (DSP) systems. Over the past few decades, various dataflow models and techniques have been developed for different DSP application domains; and many system design tools incorporate dataflow semantics for different objec-tives in the design process. In addition, a variety of digital signal processors and other types of embedded processors have been evolving continuously; and many off-the-shelf DSP libraries are optimized for specific processor architectures. To explore their heterogeneous capabilities, we develop a novel framework that centers around the dataflow interchange format (DIF) for helping DSP system designers to integrate the diversity of dataflow models, techniques, design tools, DSP libraries, and embedded processing platforms. The dataflow interchange format is designed as a standard language for specifying DSP-oriented dataflow graphs, and the DIF framework is developed to achieve the following unique combination of Report Documentation Page Form ApprovedOMB No. 0704-0188 Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information