A Co-Synthesis Approach to Embedded System Design Automation

Embedded systems are targeted for specific applications under constraints on relative timing of their actions. For such systems, use of predesigned reprogrammable components such as microprocessors provides an effective way to reduce system cost by implementing part of the functionality as a program running on the processor. Dedicated hardware is often necessary to achieve requisite timing performance. Analysis of timing constraints is key to determination of an efficient hardware-software implementation. In this paper, we present a methodology to achieve embedded system realizations as co-synthesis of interacting hardware and software components. This co-synthesis is based on synthesis techniques for digital hardware and software compilation under constraints. We present operation-level timing constraints and develop the notion of satis ability of constraints by a given implementation. Constraint analysis is then used to define hardware and software portions of functionality. We describe algorithms and techniques used in developing a practical co-synthesis framework, Vulcan. Examples are presented to demonstrate the utility of our approach