System level performance estimation of multi-processing, multi-threading SoC architectures for networking applications

The design of emerging networking architectures opens a multiple scenario of alternatives. If the design starts at a higher level of abstraction the process towards the selection of the optimal target architecture, as well as the partitioning of the functionalities, can be considerably accelerated. The present work introduces a novel system level performance estimation methodology based on SystemC. It will be shown that the rebuilding effort is considerably lower when applying the proposed methodology rather than building up a structural model of the target architecture at a lower level of abstraction. It makes feasible the exploration of several partitioning alternatives of a system specification onto a target architecture.