Author:

Keywords:

Science & Technology, Technology, Computer Science, Hardware & Architecture, Engineering, Electrical & Electronic, Computer Science, Engineering, cost, design reuse, low-power design, multimedia, system level, tradeoffs, ULSI, 0805 Distributed Computing, 0906 Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 1006 Computer Hardware, Computer Hardware & Architecture, 4009 Electronics, sensors and digital hardware

Abstract:

In embedded data-dominated applications, a global system-level data transfer and storage exploration phase is crucial in obtaining a cost- and performance-efficient solution. We have developed a novel formalism to describe reusable blocks such that the essential part of the design exploration freedom is retained. This formalism is the basis for a system-level reuse methodology which allows reusing large parts of the design as heavily optimized structural VHDL or assembly code and describes the costly data access-related constructs at higher levels in the code hierarchy. Compared to a reuse approach based on fixed blocks, considerable power and area savings can be obtained, as demonstrated on real-life video and modem applications.