Hardware/software co-design of digital telecommunication systems

Abstract

In this paper we reflect on the nature of digital telecommunication systems. We argue that these systems require, by nature, a heterogeneous specification and an implementation with heterogeneous architectural styles. CoWare is a hardware/software co-design environment based on a data model that allows to specify, simulate, and synthesize heterogeneous hardware/software architectures from a heterogeneous specification. CoWare is based on the principle of encapsulation of existing hardware and software compilers and special attention is paid to the interactive synthesis of hardware/software and hardware/hardware interfaces. The principles of CoWare will be illustrated by the design process of a spread-spectrum receiver for a pager system.

Seamless Signal Processing Block Implementation Using the Cubed-C Design Environment

“…Furthermore, system level synthesis matured in the last decade by using more (application-wise) specialized and platformoriented methodologies. The CoWare hardware-software codesign environment [1] employs a data model that allows the user to specify, simulate and produce heterogeneous implementations from heterogeneous specification source models. The specific synchronous dataflow (SDF) type of DSP applications is implemented into hardware using languages such as SILAGE [2], DFL [3], and LUSTRE [4,5], The advantage of this type of designs is that they can be scheduled at compile time and the execution of the compiled code can be two orders of magnitude faster than eventdriven VHDL (e.g.…”

High-Level Synthesis for Embedded Systems

“…The CoWare hardware-software co-design environment (Bolsens et al, 1997) is based on a data model that allows the user to specify, simulate and produce heterogeneous implementations from heterogeneous specification source models. This synthesis approach focuses on designing telecommunication systems that contain DSP, control loops and user interfaces.…”

Derivation of formal representations from process-based specification and implementation models

“…The key idea of our approach is that we believe many of the existing process-based languages (e.g. [2]) used to specify heterogeneous systems, can be translated to "intermediate code" of this calculus which then serves as a starting point for performing a syntax-directed Petri net translation, as described in the next section. Example.…”

“…The underlying idea is that many of the existing process-based specification languages (e.g. [2]) can be translated to what we call "intermediate code" of this process calculus, which can subsequently be translated into a Petri net representation by applying a syntax-directed mapping scheme. Once arrived at the Petri net level, existing formal verification methods can then be leveraged.…”

“…Example. Consider the following program fragment, written in C, as it can be found in a process description within the CoWare TM data model [2]: while(! (x%y)) { send(a,x); x++; receive(b,y); } send(c,(x+y));…”