ABSTRACT
To support the electronic-design chain, system designers must establish a design flow. Clean interfaces and unambiguous specifications are essential parts of this design flow. Designers implement algorithms in a selected architecture as software modules or as hardware components. Architecture selection is often an ad hoc process based on experience and extrapolation from existing products. After a certain number of revisions, the function implemented by use of hardware or software is finalized. The hardware implemented must be clearly specified. The software must be cleanly partitioned into application code, communication, design drivers, and basic I/O system (BIOS).
