A framework for profile-based system-level synthesis of embedded systems

Modern advances in compiler technology for instruction-level parallelism (ILP) have significantly increased the ability of compilers to capitalize on the opportunities for parallel execution that exist in many programs. At the same time, number of new microprocessor architectures have been introduced that present the hardware structures desired by most ILP compilers such as VLIW and SIMD structures. The new class of mediaprocessor architectures combines some of the features of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) devices with those of more general purpose processors which make them good targets for compilation. While these devices seem to be good targets for high-level compilation, the architectures have features that clearly are geared toward multimedia and communications systems.; Unfortunately the vast majority of ILP research has focused on general-purpose computing and thus they do not capture all of the essential elements of modern embedded multimedia and communications applications. We have developed the MediaBench suite to address this need. In order to accurately represent emerging applications of the embedded system domain, we have established theoretically and statistically sound foundation for characterizing the application domain.; Conventional System-on-Chip (SOC) consists of microprocessor core, caches, and a combination of DSP/ASIC components. While the model works well for a variety of embedded system projects; it lacks flexibility and provides less opportunity for customization to improve performance or power consumption. We recognized that the combination of ILP compiler technologies and new mediaprocessor architectures could offer new opportunities for embedded system designers. Through the application domain characterization study we learned that the new technologies could help address the shortcomings of the conventional model. As ILP compiler technologies mature and new mediaprocessor architectures are commercially available, the possibility becomes reality.; We introduce the fundamental concepts in the new application domain characterization paradigm. We establish quantitative principles and show its application in characterizing multimedia and communications domain. We set up an experimental framework for profile-based system level synthesis of embedded systems. The framework incorporates a production-quality ILP compiler, new mediaprocessor architectures (in particular VLIW architecture), and a set of techniques to accurately generate profiles for an application domain. We conduct a number of experiments to establish the effectiveness and applicability of the framework. We demonstrate that the framework is flexible and powerful through a mix of diverse system level synthesis experiments.