SPRINT: a tool to generate concurrent transaction-level models from sequential code

  • Authors:

  • Johan Cockx;Kristof Denolf;Bart Vanhoof;Richard Stahl

  • Affiliations:

  • Interuniversity Micro Electronics Center (IMEC vzw), Leuven, Belgium;Interuniversity Micro Electronics Center (IMEC vzw), Leuven, BelgiumInteruniversity Micro Electronics Center (IMEC vzw), Leuven, Belgium;Interuniversity Micro Electronics Center (IMEC vzw), Leuven, Belgium;Interuniversity Micro Electronics Center (IMEC vzw), Leuven, Belgium

  • Venue:
  • EURASIP Journal on Applied Signal Processing
  • Year:
  • 2007

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Abstract

A high-level concurrent model such as a SystemC transaction-level model can provide early feedback during the exploration of implementation alternatives for state-of-the-art signal processing applications like video codecs on a multiprocessor platform. However, the creation of such a model starting from sequential code is a time-consuming and error-prone task. It is typically done only once, if at all, for a given design. This lack of exploration of the design space often leads to a suboptimal implementation. To support our systematic C-based design flow, we have developed a tool to generate a concurrent SystemC transaction-level model for user-selected task boundaries. Using this tool, different parallelization alternatives have been evaluated during the design of an MPEG-4 simple profile encoder and an embedded zero-tree coder. Generation plus evaluation of an alternative was possible in less than six minutes. This is fast enough to allow extensive exploration of the design space.