System-Level Performance Evaluation of Very High Complexity Media Applications : A H264/AVC Encoder Case Study

Given the substantially increasing complexity of embedded systems, the use of relatively detailed clock cycle-accurate simulators for the design-space exploration is impractical in the early design stages. Raising the abstraction level is nowadays widely seen as a solution to bridge the gap between the increasing system complexity and the low design productivity. For this, several system-level design tools and methodologies have been introduced to efficiently explore the design space of heterogeneous signal processing systems. In this paper, we demonstrate the effectiveness and the flexibility of the Sesame/Artemis system-level modeling and simulation methodology for efficient performance evaluation and rapid architectural exploration of the increasing complexity heterogeneous embedded media systems. For this purpose, we have selected a system level design of a very high complexity media application; a H.264/AVC (Advanced Video Codec) video encoder. The encoding performances will be evaluated using system-level simulations targeting multiple heterogeneous multiprocessors platforms.