An Object-Oriented Layered Approach to Interfaces for Hardware/Software Codesign of Embedded Systems

The Canadian Microelectronics Corporation1 has developed and distributed a Rapid Prototyping Board (RPB) to facilitate research in Hardware/Software (HW/SW) Codesign, case studies, applications and prototyping of projects in embedded systems. This research develops a series of layers between hardware and software, exploiting the dynamically reconfigurable hardware of the RPB and creating the connection to host processes and software layers in general, both on the board itself, and between a HW/SW system downloaded to the board and its host workstation. In this paper we describe a new approach which uses 1This work is supported by research grants from NSERC (Natural Science and Engineering Research Council) and equipment loans from CMC (Canadian Microelectronics Corporation). CMC is the primary government agency fostering microelectronics research in Canadian universities. 1060-3425/98 $10.00 object oriented technology as the basis for the system design methodology, the specifications and the implementation, providing a flexible and dynamic foundation, lending itself to further expansion and research in HW/SW codesign.