Integrating UML into SoC design process

In this paper, we propose a method for integrating UML model into the current SoC design process. UML is introduced as a formal model of specification for SoC design. The consistency and completeness of the specification is validated based on the formal UML model. The implementation is validated by a systematic derivation of test scenarios from the UML model. The method has been applied to the design of a new media-processing chip for mobile devices. The application of the method shows that it is not only effective for finding logical errors in the implementation, but also eliminates errors due to inconsistency and incompleteness of the specification.