Automatic generation of hardware/software interfaces

Abstract

Specialized hardware is necessary to reduce power consumption in mobile devices. Current design methodologies require an early partitioning of the application, allowing the hardware and software to be developed simultaneously, each adhering to a rigid interface contract. Early specification of detailed interface contracts is difficult and prevents the later migration of functionality across the interface. We address this problem using the Bluespec Codesign Language~(BCL) which permits the designer to specify the hardware-software partition in the source code, allowing the compiler to synthesize efficient software and hardware along with transactors for communication between the partitions. We will present preliminary results generated using our compiler for various hardware-software decompositions of several applications.