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PUBLICATIONS of the DSP DESIGN GROUP and the PTOLEMY PROJECT
Visualizing Architecture and Algorithm Interaction in
Embedded Systems
by Farhana Sheikh
Masters Thesis, September 17, 1996
Dept. of EECS, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
ABSTRACT
Embedded systems are increasingly becoming integral parts of almost all
technology-oriented applications. The complexity and sophisticated nature
of these such systems make it very difficult for engineers to exploit the full
potential of the system's underlying resources. More often than not, this
results in sub-optimal performance. Tools that allow an engineer to quickly
evaluate system behaviour and performance can reduce development costs
and time-to-market. Visualization techniques have proven invaluable to the
design process in the past as they have greatly simplified tasks faced by
engineers. Visual representations of views that depict algorithm and
architecture interaction are developed to highlight poor algorithm design,
problematic hardware-software interfaces, and other reasons behind poor
performance in embedded systems. An objected-oriented framework for
visual display of design information has been designed and an
implementation of this model is discussed. The framework is then used to
develop a prototype that implements architecture-algorithm visualization
techniques. The theoretical background and issues relating to effective
embedded system design are also discussed.
Send comments to Farhana Sheikh at farhana@eecs.berkeley.edu.