Patent ID: 7337301

Claim:
A design apparatus for designing a configurable processor for an application, comprising: an analysis unit configured to analyze the content of a program to be executed by the processor; a hardware extension unit configured to search the program for a part of the program allowing hardware extension in accordance with the analysis results by the analysis unit and generates hardware extension information for the searched part; an extension instruction definition unit configured to search the program for a part of the program allowing use of an extension instruction in accordance with the analysis results by the analysis unit and generates definition of an extension instruction for the searched part; and a performance estimation unit configured to estimate whether the performance of the processor satisfies a target performance using at least one of the hardware extension information generated by the hardware extension unit and the definition of the extension instruction generated by the extension instruction definition unit; and wherein the analysis unit includes at least one of a static analysis unit configured to analyze static analysis information using syntax analysis information obtained from the results of compiling the program, and a dynamic analysis unit configured to analyze dynamic analysis information using profile information obtained from the results of executing the program.