Design space exploration of real-time multi-media MPSoCs with heterogeneous scheduling policies

Real-time multi-media applications are increasingly being mapped onto MPSoC (multi-processor system-on-chip) platforms containing hardware-software IPs (intellectual property) along with a library of common scheduling policies such as EDF, RM. The choice of a scheduling policy for each IP is a key decision that greatly affects the design's ability to meet real-time constraints, and also directly affects the energy consumed by the design. We present a cosynthesis framework for design space exploration that considers heterogenous scheduling while mapping multimedia applications onto such MPSoCs. In our approach, we select a suitable scheduling policy for each IP such that system energy is minimized - our framework also includes energy reduction techniques utilizing dynamic power management. Experimental results on a realistic multi-mode multi-media terminal application demonstrate that our approach enables us to select design points with up to 60.5% reduced energy for a given area constraint, while meeting all real-time requirements. More importantly, our approach generates a tradeoff space between energy and cost allowing designers to comparatively evaluate multiple system level mappings.