Formal Codesign Methodology with Multistep Partitioning

A codesign methodology is proposed which is suitable for control-dominated systemsbut can also be extended to more complex ones. Its main purpose is to optimize thetrade-off between hardware performance and software reprogrammability andreconfigurability. The methodology proposed intends to cover the development of thewhole system. It deals in greater detail with the steps that can be made without the needfor any particular assumption regarding the target architecture. These steps concernsplitting up the specification of the system into a set of individually synthesizableelements, and then grouping them for the subsequent mapping stage. In order todecrease the complexity of each partitioning attempt, a two step algorithm is proposed,thus permitting a wide exploration of possible solutions. The methodology is based onthe TTL language, an extension of the T-LOTOS Formal Description Technique whichprovides a large amount of operators as well as a formal basis. Finally, an examplepointing out the complete design cycle, excepting the allocation stage is provided