Ahmed Amine Jerraya

Multiprocessor System-on-Chip (MPSoC) Technology

The multiprocessor system-on-chip (MPSoC) uses multiple CPUs along with other hardware subsystems to implement a system. A wide range of MPSoC architectures have been developed over the past decade. This paper surveys the history of MPSoCs to argue that they represent an important and distinct category of computer architecture. We consider some of the technological trends that have driven the design of MPSoCs. We also survey computer-aided design problems relevant to the design of MPSoCs.

Component-based design approach for multicore SoCs

This paper presents a high-level component-based methodology and design environment for application-specific multicore SoC architectures. Component-based design provides primitives to build complex architectures from basic components. This bottom-up approach allows design-architects to explore efficient custom solutions with best performances. This paper presents a high-level component-based methodology and design environment for application-specific multicore SoC architectures. The system specifications are represented as a virtual architecture described in a SystemC-like model and annotated with a set of configuration parameters. Our component-based design environment provides automatic wrapper-generation tools able to synthesize hardware interfaces, device drivers, and operating systems that implement a high-level interconnect API. This approach, experimented over a VDSL system, shows a drastic design time reduction without any significant efficiency loss in the final circuit.

Automatic generation of application-specific architectures for heterogeneous multiprocessor system-on-chip

We present a design flow for the generation of application-specific multiprocessor architectures. In the flow, architectural parameters are first extracted from a high-level system specification. Parameters are used to instantiate architectural components, such as processors, memory modules and communication networks. The flow includes the automatic generation of a communication coprocessor that adapts the processor to the communication network in an application-specific way. Experiments with two system examples show the effectiveness of the presented design flow.

Multiprocessor SoC platforms: a component-based design approach

A high-level, component-based methodology and design environment for multiprocessor SoC architectures reduces design time without significant efficiency loss in the final circuit. This design environment provides tools for automatic wrapper generation that synthesize hardware interfaces, device drivers, and operating systems implementing high-level interconnect APIs.

Hardware/software interface codesign for embedded systems

Separate hardware- and software-only engineering approaches cannot meet the increasingly complex requirements of embedded systems. HW/SW interface codesign would enable the integration of components in heterogeneous multiprocessors. The authors analyze the evolution of this approach and define a long-term roadmap for future success.

Synthesis steps and design models for codesign

Codesign is a joint development of hardware and software components to obtain a complete system design. The fields of specification, design, and synthesis of mixed hardware/software systems are becoming increasingly more popular. The paper provides a taxonomy of codesign and discusses some design environments and models. >

Automatic generation and targeting of application specific operating systems and embedded systems software

We propose a method of automatic generation of application specific operating systems (OSs) and automatic targeting of application software. OS generation starts from a very small bur yet flexible OS kernel. OS services, which are specific to the application and deduced from dependencies between services, are added to the kernel to construct the whole OS. Communication and synchronization functions in the application code are adapted to the generated OS. As a preliminary experiment, we applied the proposed method to a system example called token ring system.

Protocol selection and interface generation for HW-SW codesign

The aim of this paper is to present a communication synthesis approach stated as an allocation problem. In the proposed approach, communication synthesis allows to transform a system composed of processes that communicate via high-level primitives through abstract channels into a set of processes executed by interconnected processors that communicate via signals and share communication control. The proposed communication synthesis approach deals with both protocol selection and interface generation and is based on bindinglallocation of communication units.- This approach allows a wide design space exploration through automatic selection of communication protocols. We present a new algorithm that performs binding/allocation of communication units. This algorithm makes use of a cost function to evaluate different allocation alternatives. We illustrate through an example the usefulness of the algorithm for allocating automatically different protocols within the same application system.

Programming models and HW-SW interfaces abstraction for multi-processor SoC

For the design of classic computers the parallel programming concept is used to abstract HW/SW interfaces during high level specification of application software. The software is then adapted to existing multiprocessor platforms using a low level software layer that implements the programming model. Unlike classic computers, the design of heterogeneous MPSoC includes also building the processors and other kind of hardware components required to execute the software. In this case, the programming model hides both hardware and software refinements. This paper deals with parallel programming models to abstract both hardware and software interfaces in the case of heterogeneous MPSoC design. Different abstraction levels are needed. For the long term, the use of higher level programming models open new vistas for optimization and architecture exploration like CPU/RTOS tradeoffs

Synthesis of system-level communication by an allocation-based approach

Abstract: Communication synthesis aims to transform a system with processes that communicate via high level primitives through channels into interconnected processes that communicate via signals and share communication control. We present a new algorithm that performs binding/allocation of communication units. This algorithm makes use of a cost function to evaluate different allocation alternatives. The proposed communication synthesis approach deals with both protocol selection and interface synthesis and is based on binding/allocation of communication units. We illustrate through an example the usefulness of the algorithm for allocating automatically different protocols within the same system.