System-Level Exploration with SpecSyn

We present the SpecSyn system-level design environment supporting the specify-explore-refine (SER) design paradigm. This three-step approach includes precise specification of system functionality, rapid exploration of numerous systemlevel design options, and refinement of the specification into one reflecting the chosen option. A system-level design option consists of an allocation of system components like standard and custom processors, and a partitioning of functionality among those components. Focusing on SpecSyn's exploration techniques, we emphasize its two-phase estimation approach and highlight experiments using SpecSyn. 1 Introduction The focus of design effort on higher abstraction levels, driven by increasing system complexity, shorter design times, and migration of entire systems onto a single chip, demands a system-level design methodology and supporting tools. We can isolate three tasks in such a methodology. First, we must specify the system's functionality and constra..