A hardware/software codesign template library for design space exploration

The ability to map a high level algorithm either to hardware or software simplifies design space exploration of cyber-physical systems. Thereby, low level tools can be utilized for accurate design parameter estimation, which helps to evaluate the effect of system level design decisions. Especially complex data structures pose a problem in this context. The different structure of memory in hardware and software requires different data structure implementations. With the presented data structure library a consistent design flow from a high level system model to either a hardware or software implementation is enabled. The concept extends the idea of abstract data types across the hardware/software boundary. Container adapters with appertaining implementations for system level simulation, hardware and software implementation support the designer throughout the whole design process. The benefit of the presented library is demonstrated and evaluated by a case study. With very little effort seven different hardware solutions were generated and compared concerning their power consumption and their resource usage.