The HeartBeat model: A platform abstraction enabling fast prototyping of real-time applications on NoC-based MPSoC on FPGA

Abstract

Future embedded systems will make use of many hundred, configurable or re-configurable, processing elements communicating through a network on chip (NoC), but there is lack of rapid automated design flows bridging the abstraction gap between the models of such systems and their implementation. Designing and programming NoC-based MPSoCs is a complex and error prone activity. However, capturing the design specification at a higher-level of abstraction using models based on models of computation (MoCs) offers a promising way of reducing design flaws at an early stage in the design flow. In this paper, we present the HeartBeat model, a concept for implementing applications based on the synchronous model of computation onto a NoC-based MPSoC platform on FPGA. Furthermore, we show that a platform complying to the constraints imposed by the HeartBeat model has real-time properties. The presented design flow significantly reduces the design time of a real-time embedded system implemented on a NoCbased MPSoC platform, enabling rapid design space exploration through fast prototyping of the solution.