Statecharts: A visual formalism for complex systems
Science of Computer Programming
vic: a flexible framework for packet video
Proceedings of the third ACM international conference on Multimedia
A methodology and design environment for DSP ASIC fixed point refinement
DATE '99 Proceedings of the conference on Design, automation and test in Europe
Low power DSP's for wireless communications (embedded tutorial session)
ISLPED '00 Proceedings of the 2000 international symposium on Low power electronics and design
FRIDGE: a fixed-point design and simulation environment
Proceedings of the conference on Design, automation and test in Europe
Data and memory optimization techniques for embedded systems
ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems (TODAES)
A quick safari through the reconfiguration jungle
Proceedings of the 38th annual Design Automation Conference
Custom Memory Management Methodology: Exploration of Memory Organisation for Embedded Multimedia System Design
JPEG Still Image Data Compression Standard
JPEG Still Image Data Compression Standard
Architecture Exploration for Embedded Processors with Lisa
Architecture Exploration for Embedded Processors with Lisa
Teaching Trade-offs in System-level Design Methodologies
MSE '03 Proceedings of the 2003 International Conference on Microelectronics Systems Education
Finding the best system design flow for a high-speed JPEG encoder
ASP-DAC '03 Proceedings of the 2003 Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference
Analysis of multidimensional DSP specifications
IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing
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UCLA teaches students how to master the steep slopes of the embedded systems mountain. The EE201A graduate course connects high-level design specification to embedded implementation. There is a long-standing and wide culture gap between system designers that create those abstract specifications and the system architects that need to implement them. In industry, the culture gap has separated software from hardware teams, and platform creators from platform users. In an embedded context, where these are very tightly connected, this leads to large inefficiencies both in design time and design results. Our course takes students to both sides of the gap and lets them look at this problem from different perspectives. For a given application, it teaches how to select target architectures, tools, and design methods. The course covers a stepwise systematic design process. It includes specification, transformation, and refinement of an application. Specifications enable systematic and structured expression of an application. Transformations rework specifications into ones that are a better match for a given target architecture. Refinements lower the abstraction level toward the target architecture. The embedded systems mountain is traversed in two directions. A vertical refinement axis covers elements such as power-memory-reduction methods or fixed-point refinement. A horizontal exploration axis covers various architecture alternatives including application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), domain-specific processors, digital signal processors (DSP), embedded cores, programmable processors, and system-on-chip (SOC). During the course, the students also go through an extensive design project to apply the methods learned in this course. A typical embedded application is used to drive the project. In this paper it is illustrated using an embedded version of an image encoder, more specifically a JPEG encoder. Several commercial tools, design environments, and platforms have been used as alternative implementation targets for this application.