NoC-based platform for embedded software design: An extension of the Hellfire Framework

Abstract

This paper presents an extension of the Hellfire Framework (HFFW), providing an intuitive and powerful web interface to build, test and debug a complete Multiprocessor System-on-Chip (MPSoC). Among the new functionalities presented, it is possible to highlight: i) the architecture builder tool, used to set up all the MPSoC architecture; ii) the possibility to use a Network-on-Chip (NoC) as the communication mean, and; iii) a new simulator, providing a fast and accurate high level Instructions Set Simulator (ISS) with a miss ratio less than 5%. In order to validate the new simulator accuracy several tests were taken, first using traffic generators and then an implementation of the Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA). The achieved results are discussed throughout the paper.