Interface synthesis: a vertical slice from digital logic to software components

Abstract

Interface synthesis seeks to automate the process of interconnecting components. There are many levels of interconnection that must be considered including electrical, power, logic, register-transfer, device drivers, and higher software levels. This presentation will cover a vertical slice of the interfacing problem from digital logic up to coordinating communications between software components. The focus will be within an embedded systems context where the interfacing is between processors and memory and peripheral blocks as is the case in system-on-a-chip design. The structure of the tutorial will parallel the history of CAD efforts in this area. We will begin with the early work in interface specification and logic synthesis then proceed on to the problems of interconnecting hardware to processors and their software, and finish with purely software interfaces involving inter-process communication and protocols between multiple processors. At each level we will discuss specification, synthesis, and verification aspects as well as highlight the currently available tools and on-going research efforts.