Fundamental Concepts to Build a Runtime Reconfigurable Virtual Platform Model

Domain-specific architectures (DSA) are gaining attention in areas such as computer architecture, cyber-physical, and embedded systems. Therefore, an opportunity is open to embrace new approaches to the design of embedded systems such as the consideration of runtime reconfiguration along with DSA. Given this, we bring to attention fundamental concepts needed to build a virtual platform model, including formal models of computation, heterogeneous reconfigurable processors, and domain ontology. Here, we propose two minimum levels of abstraction: specification and virtual implementation. The main contribution to embedded systems, cyber-physical systems, and reconfigurable computing is the possibility to design an application focusing on its functions, thus obtaining an executable specification along with an application-customized hardware platform abstraction. We provide a proof-of-concept to show the potential of these fundamental concepts applied together.