SYDIC-Training Course on
Hardware/Software Codesign
Part II: Lab exercise (8 hours)
The lab exercises are intended to illustrate a systematic design methodology. Such a methodology allows the design of hardware/software systems from specification to the synthesis of its components. The CAD tools to be used include Ptolemy, the design environment Polis, and an Esterel compiler.
Exercise 1: Specification and Co-simulation
The first part of this exercise shows how to specify each one of the composing blocks of a simple system, and how to validate (functionally) each block working as an independent unit. Then, the whole system is evaluated, via co-simulation. Polis, together with Ptolemy, offers the environment to carry out the co-simulation.
Exercise 2: Design Space Exploration
The second exercise illustrates how to explore different design alternatives using the tools mentioned above. It is possible to choose different implementations (hardware or software) for each of the composing blocks and thus evaluate the system performance. Other parameters, such as target processors and scheduling policies for the software part, can also be changed in order to study different trade-offs. After the design space has been explored and one design alternative selected according to the designer's criteria, a mixed hardware/software implementation is generated by synthesizing the hardware, the software, and the hardware/software interface.