Cycle-Accurate System-Level Modeling and Performance Evaluation
Marcello Coppola, Miltos D. Grammatikakis · 2018
This chapter focuses on general methodologies for cycle-accurate system-level modeling and performance evaluation. It considers system modeling, design flow, and design space exploration. The chapter introduces abstraction levels and outlines general system-level design methodology, including top-down and bottom-up protocol refinement, hierarchical modeling, orthogonalization of concerns, and communication protocol layering. It examines design space exploration, a key process to enhancing design quality. The cycle-accurate system architecture model can be used for system-level performance evaluation, design space exploration, and also as an executable specification for the hardware and software implementation. Advanced system-level modeling may lead from a high-level system model derived from initial specifications, through successive functional decomposition and refinement, to implementing an optimized, functionally correct, unambiguous protocol, i.e., without deadlock conditions or race hazards. The chapter also examines fundamental concepts in system-level design, including abstraction level, system-level modeling methodology, and design exploration.