Abstract
Designing embedded systems is a challenging task during which wrong choices can lead to extremely costly re-design loops, especially when these wrong choices are made during the algorithm specification and the mapping over the selected architecture. In this paper we propose a high-level approach for design space exploration, using a usual standard language as input. More precisely we present the two first steps of the Design Trotter framework: (i) the specification step and its underlying internal model (HCDFG: Hierarchical and Control Data Flow Graph) and (ii) the characterization step which takes place very early in the design flow. Indeed, once transformed into our internal representation, the specification is rapidly and automatically characterized and explored at the algorithmic level. The framework provides the designer with metrics so that he can evaluate, very early in the design process, the impact of algorithmic choices on resource requirements in terms of processing, control, memory bandwidth and potential parallelism at different levels of granularity. The overall aim of our approach is to improve the algorithm/architecture matching that sorely influences the implementation efficiency in terms of silicon area, performances and energy consumption. We give examples which illustrate how designers can refer to the outcomes of the Design Trotter framework in order to select or build suitable architectures for specific applications.
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Yannick Le Moullec received the M.S degree from the University of Rennes (France) in 1999 and the Ph.D degree from the University of South Brittany (France) in 2003. His thesis focused on Hardware/Software codesign, and more specifically on high-level design space exploration of embedded systems. His thesis work is part of the EDA framework “Design Trotter”. In 2003 he joined the center for embedded software (CISS) at Aalborg University (Denmark) as a post-doc fellow. His current work deals with design space exploration for wireless applications.
Jean-Philippe Diguet received the M.S degree and the Ph.D degree from Rennes University (France) in 1993 and 1996 respectively. His thesis, carried out at LASTI lab., focused on the estimation of hardware complexity and algorithmic transforms for architectural synthesis. Then he joined the IMEC in Leuven (Belgium) where he worked as a post-doc fellow on the minimization of the power consumption of memories at the system-level. He has been a member of the LESTER lab. (Lorient, France) since 1998, where he initiated a research project in design space exploration both at the algorithmic and system levels. He has been an associated professor at the University of South Brittany (France) from 1998 until 2002. In 2002, he initiated a technology transfer and co-funded Dixip, a company in the domain of wireless embedded systems. Since 2004 he is a CNRS (French National Scientific Research Center) researcher. His work focuses on two topics. The first one is the management of the development of the EDA framework “Design Trotter” for design space exploration and combining the design space exploration with technology mapping over reconfigurable architectures. The second topic is the definition of environment-aware, predictive and self-adaptive architectures under QoS and power constraints, this topic includes new OS services, NOCs and architecture reconfiguration control.
Nader Ben Amor is a PhD student at both University of South Brittany (France) and Sfax Engineering School (Tunisia). He received the Electrical Engineering Diploma in 2000 and the M.S Degree in Electronics in 2001 from Sfax Engineering School. His research interest is the design of embedded multimedia processors.
Thierry Gourdeaux received the Engineer Title and the M.S degree from the ENSSAT school, Lannion (France), in 1997. Since 1999 he is a research engineer at the University of South Brittany. His work includes the analysis of DSP systems for spatial applications (with Alcatel Espace), technology and knowledge transfers to the industry community and the development of EDA tools such as “Design Trotter” and “Soft Explorer”.
Jean-Luc Philippe is currently a full Professor at the University of South Brittany (France). He is leading a research group working on design methodologies for electronic systems executing under performances, consumption and safety constraints. Once implemented into tools, these methodologies are applied to several domains: signal and image processing, telecommunications, transitic systems, etc.
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Le Moullec, Y., Diguet, JP., Amor, N.B. et al. Algorithmic-level Specification and Characterization of Embedded Multimedia Applications with Design Trotter. J VLSI Sign Process Syst Sign Image Video Technol 42, 185–208 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11265-005-4181-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11265-005-4181-x