A case study in design space exploration: the Tosca environment applied to a telecommunication link controller

The concept of system design, or codesign, includes a variety of possible definitions according to the considered relevant aspects, the application field, and the system granularity of the analysis. The novelty of codesign with respect to the design of pure hardware and software, which are well-known subjects, arises from the tight integration between the two types of design and from the global scope of the design constraints. Since such applications strive for high volumes, there is a payoff for size, power, and speed optimization techniques. This article presents a system-level design methodology to specify, analyze, and explore different hardware/software solutions, whose benefits have been tested by redesigning a commercial device.