System Level Design Paradigms: Platform-Based Design and Communication Synthesis

Embedded system level design must be based on paradigms that make formal foundations and uni-fication a cornerstone of their construction. Platform-Based designs and communication synthesisare important components of the paradigm shift we advocate.Communication synthesis is a fundamental productivity tool in a design methodology wherereuse is enforced. Communication design in a reuse methodology starts with a set of functionalrequirements and constraints on the interaction among components and then proceeds to buildprotocols, topology, and physical implementations that satisfy requirements and constraints whileoptimizing appropriate measures of efficiency of the implementation. Maximum efficiency can bereached when the communication specifications are entered at high levels of abstraction and thedesign process optimizes the implementation from this specification. Unfortunately, this processis very difficult if it is not cast in a rigorous framework. Platform-Based design helps define asuccessive refinement process where each step can be carried out automatically and optimizedappropriately. We present two cases, an on-chip and a wireless sensor network design, where theresulting methodology gave encouraging results.