Design exploration of an industrial embedded micro controller: Performance, cost and software compatibility
This paper presents a case study of synthesis of the industrial embedded microcontroller HT48100 and analysis of performance, cost and software compatibility for its implementation alternatives, using the hardware/ software co-design system for microcontrollers/ microprocessors PIPER-II. The synthesis tool accepts as input the instruction set architecture (behavioral) specification, and produces as outputs the pipelined RTL designs with their simulators, and the reordering constraints which guide the compiler backend to optimize the code for the synthesized designs. A compiler backend is provided to optimize the application software according to the reordering constraints. The study shows that the co-design approach was able to help the original design team to analyze the architectural properties, identify inefficient architecture features, and explore possible architectural improvements and their impacts in both hardware and software. Feasible future upgrades for the microcontroller family have been identified by the study.
design exploration software compatibility pipeline synthesis embedded controller architectural analysis