A framework for developing hardware-software systems

Electronic systems are increasingly implemented in a variety of hardware and software technologies. Designers of such systems face two challenges: to meet specified performance targets at the lowest cost, and to complete their designs in the shortest time. This paper outlines a framework currently under development that should help designers to overcome these challenges. The framework is to support flexible hardware and software partitions, so that designs can be customised to changing performance requirements and resource availability. The framework should also facilitate rapid design exploration, adaptation and evaluation, as well as systematic design refinement, validation and documentation.