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ipChinook is a design tool for distributed embedded systems. It gains leverage from the use of a carefully chosen set of design abstractions that raise the level of designer interaction during the specification, synthesis, and simulation of the design. ipChinook focuses on a component-based approach to system building that enhances the ability to reuse existing modules encapsulating software and/or hardware intellectual property. This is accomplished through a new model for constructing components that enables composition of control-flow as well as data-flow. The designer then maps the elements of the specification to a target architecture, a set of processing elements and communication channels, and ipChinook synthesizes all of the detailed communication and synchronization instructions. Designers get feedback via a co-simulation engine that permits rapid evaluation. By shortening the design cycle, designers are able to more completely explore the design space of possible architectures. The ipChinook approach to embedded system design has been embodied in a system development environment that supports the design cycle through an integrated user interface. By raising the level of abstraction of specifications, above the low-level target-specific implementation, and by automating the generation of these difficult and error-prone details, ipChinook lets designers spend their time where they are most effective, namely, in making global decisions. |
