EXPRESSION: a language for architecture exploration through compiler/simulator retargetability

We describe EXPRESSION, a language supporting architectural design space exploration for embedded systems-on-chip (SOC) and automatic generation of a retargetable compiler/simulator toolkit. Key features of our language-driven design methodology include: a mixed behavioral/structural representation supporting a natural specification of the architecture, explicit specification of the memory, subsystem allowing novel memory organizations and hierarchies; clean syntax and ease of modification supporting architectural exploration; a single specification supporting consistency and completeness checking of the architecture; and efficient specification of architectural resource constraints allowing extraction of detailed reservation tables for compiler scheduling. We illustrate key features of EXPRESSION through simple examples and demonstrate its efficacy in supporting exploration and automatic software toolkit generation for an embedded SOC codesign flow.