DALI: a methodology for the co-design of dataflow applications on hardware/software architectures [video encoder DSP example]

The design of dedicated systems is subject to severe cost, performance, time-to-market and flexibility constraints. So, it is becoming a quite complex process. This paper proposes a system-level methodology to help in the design of dedicated architectures, possibly with both hardware and software components, for dataflow-dominated applications. The methodology helps the designer to find the best architecture for a particular customer´s specification. The potential of the proposed methodology is illustrated with the design of a system for video encoding.