TABLE OF CONTENTS Embedded systems are everywhere they run the computing devices hidden inside a vast array of everyday products and appliances such as cell phones, toys, handheld PDAs, cameras and microwave ovens. Cars are full of them, as are airplanes, satellites and advanced military and medical equipments. As applications growincreasingly complex, so do the complexities of the embedded computing devices. Figure 6.1 shows an example embedded system, consisting of programmable components including a processor core, coprocessors and memory subsystem. The programmable components are used to execute the application programs. Depending on the application domain, the embedded system can have application specific hardwares, interfaces, controllers and peripherals. The programmable components, consisting of a processor core, coprocessors and memory subsystem, are referred to as programmable embedded systems . They are also referred to as programmable architectures .
As embedded systems become ubiquitous, there is an urgent need to facilitate rapid design space exploration (DSE) of programmable architectures. This need for rapid DSE becomes even more critical given the dual pressures of shrinking time-to-market and ever-shrinking product lifetimes. Architecture Description Languages (ADLs) are used to perform early exploration, synthesis, test generation and validation of processor-based designs as shown in Figure 6.2. ADLs are used to specify programmable architectures. The specification can be used for generation of a software toolkit including the compiler, assembler, simulator and debugger. The application programs are compiled and simulated, and the feedback is used to modify the ADL specification with the goal...
