A platform-based design framework for joint SW/HW multiprocessor systems design

We present P-WARE, a framework for joint software and hardware modelling and synthesis of multiprocessor embedded systems. The framework consists of (I) component-based annotated transaction-level models for joint modelling of parallel software and multiprocessor hardware, and (2) exploration-driven methodology for joint software and hardware synthesis. The methodology has the advantage of combining real-time requirements of software with efficient optimization of hardware performance. We describe and apply the methodology to synthesize a scheduler of a H264 video encoder on the Cake multiprocessor. Moreover, experiments show that the framework is scalable while achieving rapid and efficient designs. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.