Adam Morawiec – författare

Platform Based Design at the Electronic System Level presents a multi-faceted view of the set of problems that the electronic industry currently faces in the development and integration of complex heterogeneous systems (including both hardware and software components). It analyses and proposes solutions related to the provision of integration platforms by SoC and IP providers in light of the needs and requirements expressed by the system companies: they are the users of such platforms which they apply to develop their next generation products. Further, the book tries to draw a comprehensive picture of the current "interfaces" between the platform providers and users, defined by technical requirements, current design methodology and flows, standards, and finally by the business context and relationships (which should not to be underestimated). These producer-consumer, shared "interfaces" enable (or should enable) the exchange of a well-understood and complete set of data between both parties to ensure design efficiency, high productivity and best use of domain-specific expertise and knowledge.

The problems to be solved are related to modelling of platform functionality and performance (formalisms, methods, metrics), interoperability of models, architecture exploration, early SW development in parallel to the HW platform instantiation, verification and debugging methods and flows, management of complexity at various abstraction levels, and the implications of the trade-offs between the accuracy and complexity of models. The solutions discussed by the contributors to this book have one common denominator: these are standards. In the general sense, the book provides views on why and what kind of standards are the prerequisite to the deployment of a platform based design ecosystem, in which cooperation is made possible between all parties involved in system development: system houses, platform and IP providers and EDA companies.

The material presented in Platform Based Design at the Electronic System Level will help system architects, system integrators, design engineers, IP developers and researchers to understand the state-of-the-art and future tendencies in various aspects of modelling of system platforms.

Advances in signal and image processing together with increasing computing power are bringing mobile technology closer to applications in a variety of domains like automotive, health, telecommunication, multimedia, entertainment and many others. The development of these leading applications, involving a large diversity of algorithms (e.g. signal, image, video, 3D, communication, cryptography) is classically divided into three consecutive steps: a theoretical study of the algorithms, a study of the target architecture, and finally the implementation. Such a linear design flow is reaching its limits due to intense pressure on design cycle and strict performance constraints. The approach, called Algorithm-Architecture Matching, aims to leverage design flows with a simultaneous study of both algorithmic and architectural issues, taking into account multiple design constraints, as well as algorithm and architecture optimizations, that couldn’t be achieved otherwise if considered separately. Introducing new design methodologies is mandatory when facing the new emerging applications as for example advanced mobile communication or graphics using sub-micron manufacturing technologies or 3D-Integrated Circuits. This diversity forms a driving force for the future evolutions of embedded system designs methodologies.

The main expectations from system designers’ point of view are related to methods, tools and architectures supporting application complexity and design cycle reduction. Advanced optimizations are essential to meet design constraints and to enable a wide acceptance of these new technologies.

Algorithm-Architecture Matching for Signal and Image Processing presents a collection of selected contributions from both industry and academia, addressing different aspects of Algorithm-Architecture Matching approach ranging from sensors to architectures design. The scope of this book reflects the diversity of potential algorithms, includingsignal, communication, image, video, 3D-Graphics implemented onto various architectures from FPGA to multiprocessor systems. Several synthesis and resource management techniques leveraging design optimizations are also described and applied to numerous algorithms.

Algorithm-Architecture Matching for Signal and Image Processing should be on each designer’s and EDA tool developer’s shelf, as well as on those with an interest in digital system design optimizations dealing with advanced algorithms.