Implementation of complex DSP systems using High-Level Design Tools

We describe an approach to hardware/software co-design that starts with a high-level specification of a target machine and a synchronous data flow representation of an algorithm. The instruction set description is translated into a netlist-level machine description. A set of independent tools successively transform the algorithm into a program for the target processor. We employ the machine description formalism nML, in which a processor architecture is defined solely by its instruction set semantics. Modularization and sharing of semantic properties between instructions are modelled by structuring the complete description as an attributed grammar. Analysis tools guide the user in optimizing both the hardware and the software. The design trajectory is explained by using the ADPCM algorithm as an example application and a core DSP as initial target machine.

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