Methodology for VHDL performance model construction and validation

Hardware description languages (HDLs) are frequently used to construct performance models to represent systems early in the design process. The HDLs are commonly known to be time-consuming and labor-intensive tools. For example, VHDL uses a large number of possible modeling approaches that can lead to designs which are unstructured and difficult to understand. This paper discusses a methodology to construct VHDL performance models which will help to significantly reduce the time from an initial conception to a working design. To further reduce development time, reuse of existing structural primitives is emphasized. Typical models of multi-processor architectures are very large and complex. Validation of theses models is difficult and time consuming. This paper also develops a methodology for model validation. A seventeen processor raceway architecture that was developed as a part of the ongoing RASSP (Rapid Prototyping of Application Specific Signal Processors) project, is used as a template to illustrate the new methodologies of performance model construction and model validation. The design consists of seventeen processors interconnected by multiple crossbar switches. Two software algorithms were mapped onto the architecture: a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Range Processing Algorithm and a SAR Multiswath Processing Algorithm. The methodologies developed in this thesis will considerably reduce the amount of time needed to construct and validate performance models of complex multiprocessor architectures.