An object-oriented approach to system modeling and codesign for multimedia applications

In this paper, we present an object-oriented approach to modeling systems targeted for the fast growing multimedia applications market. We focus on techniques to reach the first executable model in C++ and propose a design flow to refine the system to its implementation while minimizing re-coding efforts. We propose to take advantage of C++ expressiveness and SystemC modeling constructs to simplify mapping of the blocks, and provide possibilities for IP reuse. We enforce a strict separation of the internal behavior from the interface behavior of the design components and propose to explore those possibilities through a set-top box case study