Hardware/Software System Design Based on the MCSE Methodology

This chapter describes the hardware/software CoDesign process as an integrated part of the MCSE methodology. CoDesign is an activity related to the third MCSE development step whose objective is to express the implementation specification of the hardware and software parts of systems. More specifically, the objective includes the definition of the required hardware architecture and the organization of the software on each microprocessor component; this needs hardware/software partitioning and allocation of functions onto hardware components. As solutions for electronic and computer-based systems require hardware and software components, one may think that the overall solution systematically results from following Hw/Sw CoDesign process. In fact, considering entire systems, their software part is increasing. This is why a system-level design process in front of CoDesign is helpful to determine the specific subparts of the system to be developed for which Hw/Sw partitioning is not obvious and not imposed. The MCSE methodology and specifically its third step leads to an answer for this issue rarely raised in today’s CoDesign methods.