Modeling Flow for Automated System Design and Exploration

of the Dissertation Modeling Flow for Automated System Design and Exploration by Andreas Gerstlauer Doctor of Philosophy in Information and Computer Science University of California, Irvine, 2004 Professor Daniel D. Gajski, Chair Raising the level of abstraction is widely seen as the solution for closing the productivity gap in the design of embedded computer systems and systems-on-chip (SoCs). However, system design thus far suffers from a lack of rigorous, structured, and comprehensive design processes from abstract specification down to cycle-accurate implementation. In order to provide an automated design process, a well-defined design flow with clear and unambiguous abstraction levels, models, and transformations is required. The key to the success of this approach are properly defined design models. Arbitrary models without clear semantics do not enable synthesis and verification. In addition, synthesis requires clear definitions of the target architecture and a set of synthesis steps to transform the input model into the target model. In this dissertation, we define such input and target models, a set of design steps, design decisions, model transformation, and intermediate models that are necessary for an automated system design flow. The design flow has been implemented in the form of an interactive system-on-chip design environment (SCE). Automating tedious and error-prone tasks while reaping human expertise and insight results in a flow with the necessary transparency, controllability, observability and productivity. As part of this work, architecture, organization, tool flow, design model management, interfaces, and databases of the design framework have been established. Models in the flow have