System-level Design Methodology For Embedded Signal Processors

This project was completed in July of 1997. It was part of the Rapid Prototyping of Application-Specific Signal Processors (RASSP) program at the Electronics Technology Office of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The reports are included here for archival purposes.

Principal Investigator: Edward A. Lee
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
Start date: September 1993.
End date: July 1997.

Overview

The Ptolemy project was part of the Technology Base Development of the ARPA's Rapid Prototyping of Application Specific Signal Processors (RASSP) program. The focus of this project was on design methodology for complex real-time systems where a variety of design methodologies and implementation technologies must be combined. Design methodologies are encapsulated in one or more "models of computation", while implementation technologies are implemented as synthesis tools. Applications that use more than one model of computation and/or more than one synthesis tool are said to be "heterogeneous".

The project aimed to develop formal models for such heterogeneous systems, a software environment for the design of such systems, and synthesis technologies for implementation of such systems. In the latter category, we were concentrating on problems not already well addressed elsewhere, such as the synthesis of embedded software and the partitioning and scheduling of heterogeneous parallel systems.