Automatic generation of hardware dependent software for MPSoCs from abstract system specifications

Abstract

Increasing software content in embedded systems and SoCs drives the demand to automatically synthesize software binaries from abstract models. This is especially critical for Hardware dependent Software (HdS) due to the tight coupling. In this paper, we present our approach to automatically synthesize HdS from an abstract system model. We synthesize driver code, interrupt handlers and startup code. We furthermore automatically adjust the application to use RTOS services. We target traditional RTOS-based multi-tasking solutions, as well as a pure interrupt-based implementation (without any RTOS). Our experimental results show the automatic generation of final binary images for six real-life target applications and demonstrate significant productivity gains due to automation. Our HdS synthesis is an enabler for efficient MPSoC development and rapid design space exploration.