Patent ID: 7171632

Claim:
An apparatus for designing a semiconductor integrated circuit including a processor configurable in accordance with a target, the apparatus comprising: a software information storage section configured to store software information including software descriptions in which an algorithm required of the semiconductor integrated circuit is described; a hardware information storage section configured to store hardware information including hardware descriptions of the semiconductor integrated circuit; a processor information storage section configured to store processor information of the processor; a hardware implementation specification section configured to specify an algorithm of a portion to be implemented by hardware from among the software descriptions; a hardware changing section configured to generate hardware descriptions from the algorithm of the specified portion to be implemented by the hardware, and then change the hardware information and the processor information; a software changing section configured to generate software descriptions in which the algorithm of the specified portion to be implemented by the hardware is replaced with an algorithm for controlling the hardware, and then change the software information; and a performance analyzer configured to analyze a performance of the semiconductor integrated circuit based on the changed software information, the changed hardware information and the changed processor information; wherein: the hardware implementation specification section outputs a hardware information changing directions signal for directing to change the hardware information and the processor information, a software information changing directions signal for directing to change the software information and a performance analyzing directions signal for directing to analyze the performance, at the time when the algorithm of the portion to be implemented by hardware is selected; the hardware changing section generates automatically the hardware descriptions from the algorithm of the specified portion to be implemented by the hardware, and then changes automatically the hardware information and the processor information, based on the hardware information changing directions signal; the software changing section generates automatically the software descriptions in which the algorithm of the specified portion to be implemented by the hardware is replaced with the algorithm for controlling the hardware, and then changes automatically the software information, based on the software information changing directions signal; and the performance analyzer analyzes automatically the performance of the semiconductor integrated circuit from the changed software information, the changed hardware information and the changed processor information, based on the performance analyzing directions signal.