Generation of Embedded Hardware/Software from SystemC

Designers increasingly rely on reusing intellectual property (IP) and on raising the level of abstraction to respect system-on-chip (SoC) market characteristics. However, most hardware and embedded software codes are recoded manually from system level. This recoding step often results in new coding errors that must be identified and debugged. Thus, shorter time-to-market requires automation of the system synthesis from high-level specifications. In this paper, we propose a design flow intended to reduce the SoC design cost. This design flow unifies hardware and software using a single high-level language. It integrates hardware/software (HW/SW) generation tools and an automatic interface synthesis through a customlibrary of adapters. We have validated our interface synthesis approach on a hardware producer/consumer case study and on the design of a given software radiocommunication application. Copyright (C) 2006 S. Ouadjaout and D. Houzet.