Quality-driven model-based architecture synthesis for real-time embedded SoCs Lech Jo ´z ´wiak a, * , Sien-An Ong b a Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands b Nokia Research Center, Germany Received 16 January 2007; received in revised form 15 August 2007; accepted 17 September 2007 Available online 29 September 2007 Abstract The recent spectacular progress in modern microelectronics created a big stimulus towards development of embedded systems. Unfor- tunately, it also introduced unusual complexity which results in many serious issues that cannot be resolved without new more adequate development methods and electronic design automation tools for the system-level design. This paper discusses the problem of an efficient model-based multi-objective optimal architecture synthesis for complex hard real-time embedded systems, when using as an example a system-level architecture exploration and synthesis method that we developed. Ó 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Embedded systems; Real-time systems; System-on-a-chip; System architecture; Heterogeneous multi-processor; Design methodology; Quality- driven design; Model-based design; Platform-based design; Electronic design automation; Architecture synthesis 1. Introduction The recent spectacular progress in modern microelec- tronics enabled effective implementation of a complete com- plex information processing system on a single chip (SoC), autonomous and mobile computing, and wireless communi- cation, and facilitated a fast progress in these areas. The tra- ditional applications can now be served much better, and numerous new sorts of systems became technologically fea- sible and economically justified, especially for applications that require miniaturization, high-performance, and wire- less or distant communication. A particularly big stimulus has been created towards development of various kinds of embedded and autonomous systems. The large majority of all new applications in the electronic system area is in the field of embedded systems, most of them required to perform real-time computations to tight schedules and to be energy, power and area efficient, highly reliable, etc. This rapid progress will continue [1]. The 65nm CMOS technol- ogy becomes commercially available (e.g. in the newest FPGAs), and 45 nm technology is almost developed. However, the progress in microelectronic technology alone cannot guarantee satisfaction of the growing compu- tational demands and physical requirements of many mod- ern applications, particularly related to embedded, autonomous and high-performance systems. The opportu- nities created by the modern microelectronic technology have to be effectively exploited through usage of the more adequate computation concepts and architectures, together with effective and efficient design methods and electronic design automation (EDA) tools for synthesizing of the actual high-quality hardware platforms implementing the architectures, and for mapping of the applications onto the hardware platforms. Moreover, the spectacular advances in microelectronics introduced unusual complexity [1]: – silicon complexity, in the sense of extremely big numbers of devices and interconnections on a chip, as well as their huge density, diversity and small dimensions, huge length of interconnections, new materials and mixed technologies, and 1383-7621/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.sysarc.2007.09.001 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +31 40 2473645. E-mail address: L.Jozwiak@tue.nl (L. Jo ´z ´wiak). www.elsevier.com/locate/sysarc Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Journal of Systems Architecture 54 (2008) 349–368