Evaluation of the throughput computed with a dataflow model - A case study

Providing real-time guarantees in complex, heterogeneous, and embedded multiprocessor systems is an important issue because they affect the perceived quality. Digital signal processing algorithms are often modeled with dataflow models. A guaranteed minimum throughput can be computed from such dataflow model. In this paper we analyze three causes for the difference between the computed and measured throughput. We measure the throughput with a cycle accurate simulation. For our channel equalizer application the measured throughput is 10.1% higher than the computed minimum throughput.