Hardware-software cosynthesis of multi-mode multi-task embedded systems with real-time constraints

An embedded system is called multi-mode when it supports multiple applications by dynamically reconfiguring the system functionality. This paper proposes a hardware-software cosynthesis technique for multi-mode multi-task embedded systems with real-time constraints. The cosynthesis problem involves three subproblems: selection of appropriate processing elements, mapping and scheduling of function modules to the selected processing elements, and schedule analysis. The proposed cosynthesis framework defines an iteration loop of three steps that solve the subproblems separately. One of the key benefits of such a modular approach is extensibility and adaptability. Moreover, unlike the previous approaches, the proposed technique considers task sharing between modes and hardware sharing between tasks at the same time. We demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed technique with a realistic multimode embedded system that supports three modes of operation with 5 different tasks.