ABSTRACT
In the field of heterogeneous multi-processor embedded systems design, a co-design framework is of critical importance: it enables the designer to optimize the design process and the design itself. This chapter fulfills the top-level requirements of a co-design environment able to support the concurrent design of embedded systems, possibly subject to real-time constraints, implemented on heterogeneous multi-processor architectures. The hardware/software co-design environment TOols for System Co-Design Automation (TOSCA) has been developed to study and to propose a solution to some of the many problems that arise when designing heterogeneous systems using both hardware components, off-the-shelf cores, and software programs. Within the TOSCA flow, the functional high-level model undergoes a number of subsequent transformations that lead to the final technological representation adherent to the characteristics of the target architecture.
