Communication Estimation for Hardwardsoftware Codesign

This paper presents a general high level estimation model of communication thmughputfor the implementation of a given communication protocol. The model, which is p a n of a larger model that includes component price, sofr. ware driver object code size and hardware driver area, is intended to be general enough to be able to capture the characteristics of a wide range of communication pro to col.^ and yet to be sufficiently detailed as to allow the designer or design tool to eficiently explore tradeoffs between throughput, bus widths, bursi/nori-barst trunsfers and data packing strategies. Thus itpmvides a basisfor decision making with respect to communication protocols/compunents and communication driver design in the initial design space explorationphase of a co-synthesisprocess where a large number ofpossibilities must be examined and where fast estimators are therefore necessary. The full model allows for additional (nioneyicost, software code size and hardware area tradeoffs to be examined.