This dissertation addresses the problem of making system level design (SLD) methodology based on SystemC more useful to the complex embedded system design community by presenting a number of ingredients currently absent in the existing SLD methodologies and frameworks. The complexity of embedded systems have been increasing at a rapid rate due to proliferation of desired functionality of such systems (e.g., cell phones, game consoles, hand-held devices, etc., are providing more features every few months), and the device technology still riding the curve predicted by Moore's law. Design methodology is shifting slowly towards system level design (also called electronic system level (ESL)). A number of SLD languages and supporting frameworks are being proposed. SystemC is positioned as being one of the dominant SLD languages. The various design automation tool vendors are proposing frameworks for supporting SystemC-based design methodologies. We believe that compared to the necessity and potential of ESL, the success of the frameworks have been limited due to lack of support for a number of facilities and features in the languages and tool environments. This dissertation proposes, formulates, and provides proof of concept demonstrations of a number of ingredients that we have identified as essential for efficient and productive use of SystemC-based tools and techniques. These are heterogeneity in the form of multiple models of computation, behavioral hierarchy in addition to structural hierarchy, model-driven validation for SystemC designs and a service-oriented tool integration environment. In particular, we define syntactic extensions to the SystemC language, semantic modifications, and simulation algorithms, precise semantics for model based validation etc. For each of these we provide reference implementation for further experimentation on the utility of these extensions. / Ph. D.

As SystemC gains popularity as a System Level Design Language (SLDL) for System-On-Chip (SOC) designs, heterogeneous modelling and efficient simulation become increasingly important. The key in making an SLDL heterogeneous is the facility to express different Models Of Computation (MOC). Currently, all SystemC models employ a Discrete-Event simulation kernel making it difficult to express most MOCs without specific designer guidelines. This often makes it unnatural to express different MOCs in SystemC. For the simulation framework, this sometimes results in unnecessary delta cycles for models away from the Discrete-Event MOC, hindering the simulation performance of the model. Our goal is to extend SystemC's simulation framework to allow for better modelling expressiveness and efficiency for the Synchronous Data Flow (SDF) MOC. The SDF MOC follows a paradigm where the production and consumption rates of data by a function block are known a priori. These systems are common in Digital Signal Processing applications where relative sample rates are specified for every component. Knowledge of these rates enables the use of static scheduling. When compared to dynamic scheduling of SDF models, we experience a noticeable improvement in simulation efficiency. We implement an extension to the SystemC kernel that exploits such static scheduling for SDF models and propose designer style guidelines for modelers to use this extension. The modelling paradigm becomes more natural to SDF which results to better simulation efficiency. We will distribute our implementation to the SystemC community to demonstrate that SystemC can be a heterogeneous SLDL. / Master of Science

The ever-growing competition in current electronics industry has resulted in stringent time-to-market goals and reduced design time available to engineers. Lesser design time has subsequently raised a need for high-level synthesis design methodologies that raise the design to a higher level of abstraction. Higher level of abstraction helps in increasing the predictability and productivity of the design and reduce the number of bugs due to human-error. It also enables the designer to try out dierent optimization strategies early in the design stage. In-spite of all these advantages, high-level synthesis design methodologies have not gained much popularity in the mainstream design flow mainly because of the reasons like lack of readability and reliability of the generated register transfer level (RTL) code. The compiler framework presented in this thesis allows the user to draw high-level graphical models of the system. The compiler translates these models into synthesizeable RTL Verilog designs that exhibit their desired functionality following communicating sequential processes (CSP) model of computation. CSP model of computation introduces a good handshaking mechanism between different components in the design that makes designs less prone to timing violations during implementation and bottlenecks while in actual operation. / Master of Science

Software Defined Radios (SDRs) lend themselves to flexibility and extensibility because they<br />depend on software to implement radio functionality. Cognitive Engines (CEs) introduce<br />intelligence to radio by monitoring radio performance through a set of meters and configuring<br />the underlying radio design by modifying its knobs. In Cognitive Radio (CR) applications,<br />CEs intelligently monitor radio performance and reconfigure them to meet it application<br />and RF channel needs. While the issue of introducing computational knobs and meters<br />is mentioned in literature, there has been little work on the practical issues involved in<br />introducing such computational radio controls.<br /><br />This dissertation decomposes the radio definition to reactive models for the CE domain<br />and real-time, or dataflow models, for the SDR domain. By allowing such design space<br />decomposition, CEs are able to define implementation independent radio graphs and rely on<br />a model transformation layer to transform reactive radio models to real-time radio models<br />for implementation. The definition of knobs and meters in the CE domain is based on<br />properties of the dataflow models used in implementing SDRs. A framework for developing<br />this work is presented, and proof of concept radio applications are discussed to demonstrate<br />how CEs can gain insight into computational aspects of their radio implementation during<br />their reconfiguration decision process.<br /> / Ph. D.

As metodologias clássicas de análise de desempenho de sistemas sobre silício (System on chip, SoC) geralmente são descritas em função do tempo de execução do pior-caso1 das tarefas a serem executadas. No entanto, nas aplicações do mundo real, o tempo de execução destas tarefas pode variar devido à presença dos diferentes eventos de entrada que ativam o sistema, colocando uma exigência diferente de execução sobre os recursos do sistema. Geralmente, um modelo da carga de trabalho é uma parte integrante de um modelo de desempenho utilizado para avaliar o desempenho de um sistema. O quão bom for um modelo de carga de trabalho determina em grande medida a qualidade das soluções do projeto e a precisão das estimativas de desempenho baseadas nele. Nesta tese, é abordado o problema de modelar a carga de trabalho para o projeto de sistemas de tempo-real cuja funcionalidade envolve processamento de fluxos de multimídia, isto é, fluxos de dados representando áudio, imagens ou vídeo. O problema de modelar a carga de trabalho é abordado sob a premissa de que uma caracterização acurada do comportamento temporal do software embarcado permite ao projetista identificar diversas exigências variáveis de execução, apresentadas para os diversos recursos de arquitetura do sistema, tanto na operação individual do conjunto de tarefas de software, assim como na execução global da aplicação, em fase de projeto. A caracterização do comportamento de cada tarefa foi definida a partir de uma análise temporal dos códigos de software associados às diferentes tarefas de uma aplicação, a fim de identificar os múltiplos modos de operação que o código pode apresentar dentro de um processador. Esta caracterização é feita através da realização de uma análise estática das rotas do código executável, de forma que para cada rota de execução encontrada, estimam-se os tempos extremos de execução (WCET e BCET)2, baseando-se na modelagem da microarquitetura de um processador on-chip. Desta forma, cada rota do código executável junto aos seus respectivos tempos de execução, constitui um modo de operação do código analisado. A fim de agrupar os diversos modos de operação que apresentam um grau de semelhança entre si de acordo a uma perspectiva da medida de processamento utilizado do processador modelado, foi utilizado o conceito de cenário, o qual diferencia o comportamento de cada tarefa em relação às entradas que a aplicação sob análise pode receber. Partindo desta caracterização temporal de cada tarefa de software, as exigências da execução global da aplicação são representadas através de um modelo analítico de eventos. O modelo considera as diferentes tarefas como atores temporais de um grafo de fluxo síncrono de dados, de modo que os diferentes cenários de operação da aplicação são definidos em função dos tempos variáveis de execução identificados previamente na caracterização de cada tarefa. Uma descrição matemática deste modelo, baseada na Álgebra de Max-Plus, permite caracterizar analiticamente os diferentes fluxos de eventos entre a entrada e a saída da aplicação, assim como os fluxos de eventos entre as diferentes tarefas, considerando as mudanças nas exigências de processamento associadas aos diversos cenários previamente identificados. Esta caracterização analítica dos diversos fluxos de eventos de entrada e saída é a base para um modelo de curvas de carga de trabalho baseada em cenários de aplicação, e um modelo de curvas de serviços baseada também em cenários, que dão lugar a caracterizar o dinamismo comportamental da aplicação analisada, determinado pela diversidade de eventos de entrada que podem ativar diferentes comportamentos do sistema em fase de execução. / Classical methods for performance analysis of Multiprocessor System-on-chip (MPSoCs) are usually described in terms of Worst-Case Execution Times (WCET) of the executed tasks. Nevertheless, in real-world applications the running time of tasks varies due to different input events that trigger the system, imposing a different workload on the system resources. Usually, a workload model is a part of a performance model used to evaluate the performance of a system. How good is a workload model largely determines the quality of design solutions and the accuracy of performance estimations based on it. This thesis addresses the problem of modeling the workload for the design of real-time systems which functionality involves multimedia streams processing, i.e, data streams representing audio, images or video. The workload modeling problem is addressed from the assumption that an accurate characterization of timing behavior of real-time embedded software enables the designer to identify several variable execution requirements that the individual operation of the software tasks and the overall execution of the application will present to the several system resources of an architecture, in design phase. The software task characterization was defined from a timing analysis of the source code in order to identify the multiple operating modes the code can exhibit within a processor. This characterization is done by performing a static path analysis on the code, so that for each given path the worst-case and bestcase execution times (WCET and BCET) were estimated, based on a microarchitectural modeling of an on-chip processor. Thus, every execution path of the code, with its estimated execution times, defines an operation mode of the analyzed code. In order to cluster the several operation modes that exhibit certain degree of similarity according to the required amount of processing in the modeled processor, the concept of scenario was used, which differentiates every task behavior with respect to the several inputs the application under analysis may receive. From this timing characterization of every application task, the global execution requirements of the application are represented by an analytical event model. It describes the tasks as timed actors of a synchronous dataflow graph, so that the multiple application scenarios are defined in terms of the variable execution times previously identified in the task characterization. A mathematical description of this model based on the Max-Plus Algebra allows one to characterize the different event sequences incoming to, and exiting from, the application as well as the event sequences between the different tasks, having in count changes in the processing requirements associated with the various scenarios previously identified. This analytical characterization between the input event sequences and the output event sequences states the basis for a model of scenario-based workload curves and a model of scenario-based service curves that allow characterizing the behavioral dynamism of the application determined by the several input events that activate several system behaviors, in the execution phase.

As metodologias clássicas de análise de desempenho de sistemas sobre silício (System on chip, SoC) geralmente são descritas em função do tempo de execução do pior-caso1 das tarefas a serem executadas. No entanto, nas aplicações do mundo real, o tempo de execução destas tarefas pode variar devido à presença dos diferentes eventos de entrada que ativam o sistema, colocando uma exigência diferente de execução sobre os recursos do sistema. Geralmente, um modelo da carga de trabalho é uma parte integrante de um modelo de desempenho utilizado para avaliar o desempenho de um sistema. O quão bom for um modelo de carga de trabalho determina em grande medida a qualidade das soluções do projeto e a precisão das estimativas de desempenho baseadas nele. Nesta tese, é abordado o problema de modelar a carga de trabalho para o projeto de sistemas de tempo-real cuja funcionalidade envolve processamento de fluxos de multimídia, isto é, fluxos de dados representando áudio, imagens ou vídeo. O problema de modelar a carga de trabalho é abordado sob a premissa de que uma caracterização acurada do comportamento temporal do software embarcado permite ao projetista identificar diversas exigências variáveis de execução, apresentadas para os diversos recursos de arquitetura do sistema, tanto na operação individual do conjunto de tarefas de software, assim como na execução global da aplicação, em fase de projeto. A caracterização do comportamento de cada tarefa foi definida a partir de uma análise temporal dos códigos de software associados às diferentes tarefas de uma aplicação, a fim de identificar os múltiplos modos de operação que o código pode apresentar dentro de um processador. Esta caracterização é feita através da realização de uma análise estática das rotas do código executável, de forma que para cada rota de execução encontrada, estimam-se os tempos extremos de execução (WCET e BCET)2, baseando-se na modelagem da microarquitetura de um processador on-chip. Desta forma, cada rota do código executável junto aos seus respectivos tempos de execução, constitui um modo de operação do código analisado. A fim de agrupar os diversos modos de operação que apresentam um grau de semelhança entre si de acordo a uma perspectiva da medida de processamento utilizado do processador modelado, foi utilizado o conceito de cenário, o qual diferencia o comportamento de cada tarefa em relação às entradas que a aplicação sob análise pode receber. Partindo desta caracterização temporal de cada tarefa de software, as exigências da execução global da aplicação são representadas através de um modelo analítico de eventos. O modelo considera as diferentes tarefas como atores temporais de um grafo de fluxo síncrono de dados, de modo que os diferentes cenários de operação da aplicação são definidos em função dos tempos variáveis de execução identificados previamente na caracterização de cada tarefa. Uma descrição matemática deste modelo, baseada na Álgebra de Max-Plus, permite caracterizar analiticamente os diferentes fluxos de eventos entre a entrada e a saída da aplicação, assim como os fluxos de eventos entre as diferentes tarefas, considerando as mudanças nas exigências de processamento associadas aos diversos cenários previamente identificados. Esta caracterização analítica dos diversos fluxos de eventos de entrada e saída é a base para um modelo de curvas de carga de trabalho baseada em cenários de aplicação, e um modelo de curvas de serviços baseada também em cenários, que dão lugar a caracterizar o dinamismo comportamental da aplicação analisada, determinado pela diversidade de eventos de entrada que podem ativar diferentes comportamentos do sistema em fase de execução. / Classical methods for performance analysis of Multiprocessor System-on-chip (MPSoCs) are usually described in terms of Worst-Case Execution Times (WCET) of the executed tasks. Nevertheless, in real-world applications the running time of tasks varies due to different input events that trigger the system, imposing a different workload on the system resources. Usually, a workload model is a part of a performance model used to evaluate the performance of a system. How good is a workload model largely determines the quality of design solutions and the accuracy of performance estimations based on it. This thesis addresses the problem of modeling the workload for the design of real-time systems which functionality involves multimedia streams processing, i.e, data streams representing audio, images or video. The workload modeling problem is addressed from the assumption that an accurate characterization of timing behavior of real-time embedded software enables the designer to identify several variable execution requirements that the individual operation of the software tasks and the overall execution of the application will present to the several system resources of an architecture, in design phase. The software task characterization was defined from a timing analysis of the source code in order to identify the multiple operating modes the code can exhibit within a processor. This characterization is done by performing a static path analysis on the code, so that for each given path the worst-case and bestcase execution times (WCET and BCET) were estimated, based on a microarchitectural modeling of an on-chip processor. Thus, every execution path of the code, with its estimated execution times, defines an operation mode of the analyzed code. In order to cluster the several operation modes that exhibit certain degree of similarity according to the required amount of processing in the modeled processor, the concept of scenario was used, which differentiates every task behavior with respect to the several inputs the application under analysis may receive. From this timing characterization of every application task, the global execution requirements of the application are represented by an analytical event model. It describes the tasks as timed actors of a synchronous dataflow graph, so that the multiple application scenarios are defined in terms of the variable execution times previously identified in the task characterization. A mathematical description of this model based on the Max-Plus Algebra allows one to characterize the different event sequences incoming to, and exiting from, the application as well as the event sequences between the different tasks, having in count changes in the processing requirements associated with the various scenarios previously identified. This analytical characterization between the input event sequences and the output event sequences states the basis for a model of scenario-based workload curves and a model of scenario-based service curves that allow characterizing the behavioral dynamism of the application determined by the several input events that activate several system behaviors, in the execution phase.

Les travaux présentés dans cette thèse portent sur le prototypage virtuel des systèmes embarqués hétérogènes. La complexité des systèmes embarqués fait qu'il est difficile de trouver une solution optimale. Ainsi, les approches adoptées par les ingénieurs reposent sur la simulation qui requiert le prototypage virtuel. L'intérêt du prototypage virtuel est de fournir des modèles exécutables de systèmes embarqués afin de les étudier du point de vue fonctionnel et non-fonctionnel. Notre contribution consiste en la définition d'une nouvelle approche à composants pour le prototypage virtuel des systèmes embarqués, appelé 42. 42 n'est pas un nouveau langage pour le développement des systèmes embarqués, mais plutôt un outil pour la description et l'assemblage de composants pour les systèmes embarqués, au niveau système. Un modèle pour le prototypage virtuel des systèmes embarqués doit prendre en compte leur hétérogénéité. Des approches comme Ptolemy proposent un catalogue de MoCCs (Models of Computation and Communication) qui peuvent être organisés en hiérarchie afin de modéliser l'hétérogénéité. 42 s'inspire de Ptolemy dans l'organisation hiérarchique de composants et de MoCCs. Cependant, les MoCCs dans 42 ne sont pas fournis sous forme de catalogue, ils sont décrits par des programmes qui manipulent un petit ensemble de primitives de base pour activer les composants et gérer les communications entre eux. Une approche à composants comme 42 requiert un formalisme de spécification de composants. Nous étudierons les moyens proposés par 42 pour décrire les composants. Nous nous intéresseront particulièrement aux contrats de contrôle de 42. 42 est indépendant de tout langage ou formalisme. Il est conçu dans l'optique d'être utilisé conjointement avec les approches existantes. Nous donnerons une preuve de concept afin de montrer l'intérêt d'utiliser 42 et les contrats de contrôle associés aux composants, conjointement avec des approches existantes.

Multi-core processors have become the dominant processor architecture with 2, 4, and 8 cores on a chip being widely available and an increasing number of cores predicted for the future. In addition, the decreasing costs and increasing programmability of Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) have made these an accessible source of parallel processing power in general purpose computing. Among the many research challenges that this scenario has raised are the fundamental problems related to theoretical modeling of computation in these architectures. In this thesis we study several aspects of computation in modern parallel architectures, from modeling of computation in multi-cores and heterogeneous platforms, to multi-core cache management strategies, through the proposal of an architecture that exploits bit-parallelism on thousands of bits. Observing that in practice multi-cores have a small number of cores, we propose a model for low-degree parallelism for these architectures. We argue that assuming a small number of processors (logarithmic in a problem's input size) simplifies the design of parallel algorithms. We show that in this model a large class of divide-and-conquer and dynamic programming algorithms can be parallelized with simple modifications to sequential programs, while achieving optimal parallel speedups. We further explore low-degree-parallelism in computation, providing evidence of fundamental differences in practice and theory between systems with a sublinear and linear number of processors, and suggesting a sharp theoretical gap between the classes of problems that are efficiently parallelizable in each case. Efficient strategies to manage shared caches play a crucial role in multi-core performance. We propose a model for paging in multi-core shared caches, which extends classical paging to a setting in which several threads share the cache. We show that in this setting traditional cache management policies perform poorly, and that any effective strategy must partition the cache among threads, with a partition that adapts dynamically to the demands of each thread. Inspired by the shared cache setting, we introduce the minimum cache usage problem, an extension to classical sequential paging in which algorithms must account for the amount of cache they use. This cache-aware model seeks algorithms with good performance in terms of faults and the amount of cache used, and has applications in energy efficient caching and in shared cache scenarios. The wide availability of GPUs has added to the parallel power of multi-cores, however, most applications underutilize the available resources. We propose a model for hybrid computation in heterogeneous systems with multi-cores and GPU, and describe strategies for generic parallelization and efficient scheduling of a large class of divide-and-conquer algorithms. Lastly, we introduce the Ultra-Wide Word architecture and model, an extension of the word-RAM model, that allows for constant time operations on thousands of bits in parallel. We show that a large class of existing algorithms can be implemented in the Ultra-Wide Word model, achieving speedups comparable to those of multi-threaded computations, while avoiding the more difficult aspects of parallel programming.

Multi-core processors have become the dominant processor architecture with 2, 4, and 8 cores on a chip being widely available and an increasing number of cores predicted for the future. In addition, the decreasing costs and increasing programmability of Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) have made these an accessible source of parallel processing power in general purpose computing. Among the many research challenges that this scenario has raised are the fundamental problems related to theoretical modeling of computation in these architectures. In this thesis we study several aspects of computation in modern parallel architectures, from modeling of computation in multi-cores and heterogeneous platforms, to multi-core cache management strategies, through the proposal of an architecture that exploits bit-parallelism on thousands of bits. Observing that in practice multi-cores have a small number of cores, we propose a model for low-degree parallelism for these architectures. We argue that assuming a small number of processors (logarithmic in a problem's input size) simplifies the design of parallel algorithms. We show that in this model a large class of divide-and-conquer and dynamic programming algorithms can be parallelized with simple modifications to sequential programs, while achieving optimal parallel speedups. We further explore low-degree-parallelism in computation, providing evidence of fundamental differences in practice and theory between systems with a sublinear and linear number of processors, and suggesting a sharp theoretical gap between the classes of problems that are efficiently parallelizable in each case. Efficient strategies to manage shared caches play a crucial role in multi-core performance. We propose a model for paging in multi-core shared caches, which extends classical paging to a setting in which several threads share the cache. We show that in this setting traditional cache management policies perform poorly, and that any effective strategy must partition the cache among threads, with a partition that adapts dynamically to the demands of each thread. Inspired by the shared cache setting, we introduce the minimum cache usage problem, an extension to classical sequential paging in which algorithms must account for the amount of cache they use. This cache-aware model seeks algorithms with good performance in terms of faults and the amount of cache used, and has applications in energy efficient caching and in shared cache scenarios. The wide availability of GPUs has added to the parallel power of multi-cores, however, most applications underutilize the available resources. We propose a model for hybrid computation in heterogeneous systems with multi-cores and GPU, and describe strategies for generic parallelization and efficient scheduling of a large class of divide-and-conquer algorithms. Lastly, we introduce the Ultra-Wide Word architecture and model, an extension of the word-RAM model, that allows for constant time operations on thousands of bits in parallel. We show that a large class of existing algorithms can be implemented in the Ultra-Wide Word model, achieving speedups comparable to those of multi-threaded computations, while avoiding the more difficult aspects of parallel programming.

Computer hardware keeps increasing in complexity. Software design needs to keep up with this. The right models and abstractions empower developers to leverage the novelties of modern hardware. This thesis deals primarily with Models of Computation, as a basis for software design, in a family of methods called software synthesis. We focus on Kahn Process Networks and dataflow applications as abstractions, both for programming and for deriving an efficient execution on heterogeneous multicores. The latter we accomplish by exploring the design space of possible mappings of computation and data to hardware resources. Mapping algorithms are not at the center of this thesis, however. Instead, we examine the mathematical structure of the mapping space, leveraging its inherent symmetries or geometric properties to improve mapping methods in general. This thesis thoroughly explores the process of model-based design, aiming to go beyond the more established software synthesis on dataflow applications. We starting with the problem of assessing these methods through benchmarking, and go on to formally examine the general goals of benchmarks. In this context, we also consider the role modern machine learning methods play in benchmarking. We explore different established semantics, stretching the limits of Kahn Process Networks. We also discuss novel models, like Reactors, which are designed to be a deterministic, adaptive model with time as a first-class citizen. By investigating abstractions and transformations in the Ohua language for implicit dataflow programming, we also focus on programmability. The focus of the thesis is in the models and methods, but we evaluate them in diverse use-cases, generally centered around Cyber-Physical Systems. These include the 5G telecommunication standard, automotive and signal processing domains. We even go beyond embedded systems and discuss use-cases in GPU programming and microservice-based architectures.