Assessing the feasibility of interface designs before their implementation

Abstract

During the design of microprocessor-based systems, once the system architecture has been decided and the major components (processors, memories, to devices) have been selected from a component library, it is necessary to design interface logic to integrate the system. Such an interface design can be carried out based on the protocols used by the components. This paper addresses the problem of determining the feasibility of a design prior to synthesis. A design is called feasible if it achieves the desired functionality and satisfies the given environmental constraints. Because timing is an important aspect of a correct design, protocols are described using timed signal transition graphs, an interpreted Petri net. It is shown here that the feasibility of designs whose corresponding behavior is periodic can be studied using a technique called timing analysis for synthesis.