MetaCore: an application-specific programmable DSP development system

• Published in: IEEE transactions on very large scale integration (VLSI) systems 2000-04, Vol.8 (2), p.173-183
• Main Authors: YANG, J.-H, KIM, B.-W, KYUNG, C.-M, NAM, S.-J, KWON, Y.-S, LEE, D.-H, LEE, J.-Y, HWANG, C.-S, LEE, Y.-H, HWANG, S.-H, PARK, I.-C
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Application specific processors; Applied sciences; Assembly systems; Circuit properties; Costs; Design engineering; Design methodology; Design. Technologies. Operation analysis. Testing; Development systems; Digital circuits; Digital signal processing; Digital signal processors; Electric, optical and optoelectronic circuits; Electronic circuits; Electronic equipment and fabrication. Passive components, printed wiring boards, connectics; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Exploration; Hardware; Hardware design languages; Integrated circuits; Microprocessors; Mobile communication; Process design; Program processors; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Specifications; Very large scale integration
• ISSN: 1063-8210; 1557-9999
• DOI: 10.1109/92.831437

This paper describes the MetaCore system which is an application-specific instruction-set processor (ASIP) development system targeted for digital signal processor (DSP) applications. The goal of the MetaCore system is to offer an efficient design methodology meeting specifications given as a combination of performance, cost, and design turnaround time. The MetaCore system consists of two major design stages: design exploration and design generation. In the design exploration stage, MetaCore system accepts a set of benchmark programs and structural/behavioral specifications for the target processor and estimates the hardware cost and performance for each hardware configuration being explored. Once a hardware configuration and instruction set are chosen, the system helps generate the target processor design in the form of hardware description language (HDL) along with the application program development tools such as C compiler, assembler, and instruction set simulator. The effectiveness of the MetaCore system was verified with a successful design of MDSP-II, a programmable DSP processor targeted for mobile communication.