A methodology for simulation and synthesis of mixed hardware/software systems

Summary form only given. A methodology for designing embedded DSP systems containing interacting hardware and software components is presented. The software typically comprises a program running on a programmable digital signal processor and the hardware consists of the processor, custom synthesized hardware modules, and the interface between the two. The methodology allows the designer to begin with a high-level dataflow description of the algorithm and generates a simulation model as well as a synthesizeable description for the entire system. The authors have implemented this mechanism within the Ptolemy framework as a heterogeneous target called the Design Assistant