The Chinook hardware/software co-synthesis system

Abstract

Designers of embedded systems are facing ever tighter constraints on design time, but computer-aided design tools for embedded systems have not kept pace with these trends. The Chinook co-synthesis system addresses the automation of the most time-consuming and error-prone tasks in embedded controller design, namely the synthesis of interface hardware and software needed to integrate system components, the migration of functions between processors or custom logic, and the co-simulation of the design before, during and after synthesis. This paper describes the principal elements of Chinook and discuss its application to a variety of embedded designs.