A Co-Synthesis Environment for Embedding Digital Systems in a Sea-of-Gates IC

This paper describes a co-synthesis environment for the implementation of embedded digital systems on a single chip quick turnaround sea-of-gates technology. The target architecture integrates a parameterizable 8 bit RISC microcontroller core with application specific hardware functional units able to accelerate the execution of the timing critical system components. The hardware/software co -synthesis is guided by constraint directives added to the software-based system specification. The system proposed provides a suitable environment and an efficient solution for rapid prototyping and low cost small series production of low to medium complexity embedded digital systems.