Paper Details

%T Development of a Family of Multi\-Core Devices Using Hierarchical Abstraction
%A Andrew Duller, Alan Gray, Daniel Towner, Jamie Iles, Gajinder Panesar, Will Robbins
%E Alistair A. McEwan, Steve Schneider, Wilson Ifill, Peter H. Welch
%B Communicating Process Architectures 2007
%X picoChip has produced a range of commercially deployed
   multi\-core devices, all of which have the same on\-chip
   deterministic communications structure (the picoBus) but
   vary widely in the number and type of cores which make up
   the devices. Systems are developed from processes connected
   using unidirectional signals. Individual processes are
   described using standard C or assembly language and are
   grouped together in a hierarchical description of the
   overall system. This paper discusses how families of chips
   may be developed by "hardening" structures
   in the hierarchy of an existing software system. Hardening
   is the process of replacing sets of communicating processes
   with an equivalent hardware accelerator, without changing
   the interface to that sub\-system. Initial development is
   performed using a completely software implementation, which
   has advantages in terms of "time to
   market". When cost/power reductions are required,
   the proposed hardening process can be used to convert
   certain parts of a design into fixed hardware. These can
   then be included in the next generation of the device. The
   same tool chain is used for all devices and this means that
   verification of the hardware accelerator against the
   original system is simplified. The methodology discussed has
   been used to produce a family of devices which have been
   deployed in a wide range of wireless applications around the
   world.

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