Overview

The design of electronic systems is quite complex since they usually consist of a large number of components that are heterogenous in nature and include interfaces to different technologies (optical, analog, micromechanical etc.). These components can require different design techniques, and the interaction among them has to be considered too.

The rapid evolution of the microelectronic technology toward smaller mask-level geometries, leading to higher integration levels and higher performance, is also motivating new approaches to the design of digital systems. The scenario offered by CAD methodologies is rapidly evolving to deal with the integration and the complexity levels imposed by the system-on-a-chip (SOC) approach, which aims at integrating in a single VLSI circuit one or more microprocessors and the heterogeneous functional modules that compose the system.

In this dissertation, we use the term microprocessor-based system to indicate a system that can execute a set of general-purpose functions by means of a microprocessor, an executable program and any other hardware/software module needed to execute the target functions. The comprehensive view of all these components is referred to as the system-level view.

System-level design is the activity that leads to a completely functioning microprocessor-based system both in terms of hardware and software functionalities. This activity is usually composed of two separate tasks, i.e., the design of the hardware partition and the software partition of the system. The coupling of these two activities can be slightly tight, as in the case of traditional general-purpose system design, or...