ABSTRACT
Modern consumer devices need to offer a broad range of functions at low cost and with low energy consumption. The core of such devices often is a multiprocessor System-on-Chip (MPSoC) that implements the functions as an integrated hardware/software solution. The integration technology used for
ZURA: “2824_C025” — 2005/6/21 — 20:04 — page 2 — #2
building such MPSoCs from a set of hardware and software modules is typically based on low-level interfaces for the integration of the modules. For example, the usual way of working is to use bus interfaces for the integration of hardware devices, with ad-hoc mechanisms based on memory mapped registers and interrupts to synchronize hardware and software modules. Further, support for reuse is typically poor and a method for exploring trade-offs is often missing. As a consequence MPSoC integration is a labor-intensive and error-prone task and opportunities for reuse of hardware and software modules are limited.
