Embedded Software Generation from SystemC for Platform Based Design

Abstract

The current trend in embedded system design is towards an increasing percentage of the embedded SW development cost of the total embedded system design costs. There is a clear need of reducing SW generation cost while maintaining reliability and design quality. SystemC represents a step forward in ensuring these goals. In this chapter, the application of SystemC to embedded SW generation is discussed. The state of art of the existing techniques for SW generation is analyzed and their advantages and drawbacks presented. In addition, methods for systematic embedded software generation which reduce the software generation cost in a platform based HW/SW co-design methodology for embedded systems based on SystemC is presented. SystemC supports a single-source approach, that is, the use of the same code for system level specification and verification, and, after HW/SW partitioning, for HW/SW co-simulation and embedded SW generation.