A methodology and tooling enabling application specific processor design

Abstract

This paper presents a highly efficient processor design methodology based on the LISA 2.0 language. Typically the architecture design phase is dominated by an iterative processor model refinement based on the results of hardware and software simulation and profiling. Thus, traditionally huge teams of hardware and software experts are required to design new programmable architectures. The proposed design flow reduces the design time and enables even non processor experts to overcome the typical design challenges. The presented design methodology is based on a workbench that automates the generation of all required software tools and furthermore closes the gap between high level modeling and hardware implementation via automatic generation of a register transfer level (RTL) model for the target processor. A case study demonstrates the design approach discussing the application specific instruction-set processor (ASIP) design for a fast Fourier transformation (FFT) algorithm. Several processor types such as SIMD and VLIW with various characteristics have been explored to find an optimal processor implementation for this algorithm.