Synthesis of the hardware/software interface in microcontroller-based systems

A tool that automates the synthesis of the hardware/software interface between a microcontroller and the devices it controls is described. Optimizations of the synthesis process focus primarily on the minimization of interface hardware and also the code size of the device driver routines. This interface synthesis problem is specified and the data structures used to represent the microcontroller, devices, and hardware and software primitives are described. The port allocation algorithm is presented and the features of this interface synthesis tool are highlighted with two practical examples.<<ETX>>

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