On Tools for Modeling High-Performance Embedded Systems

Most of the new embedded systems require high performance processors at low power. To cater to these needs, most semiconductor companies are designing multi-core processors, also known as chip-multiprocessors, while some are developing multi-chip boards with existing multi-core processors. Developing applications on these powerful architectures require specialized tools to obtain the optimum performance. Most applications running on these processors not only require high processing power, but also have tight resource constraints. For both, chip-multiprocessors and multi-chip boards, one faces some common problems while developing applications for them. To meet this end, we have developed tools to model high-performance embedded applications on these complex high-end systems. We have integrated these tools in the modeling framework of MILAN, and have modeled a real application, Mpeg-2 Audio Video Decoder. For validation we have used Cradle Technologies MDSP multi-core chip as the target processor.