Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences

This report describes the SpecC methodology for system-level embedded system design. The methodology consists of a set of well-defined tasks and design models which allow the easy insertion and reuse of intellectual property. Starting from the abstract executable specification written in SpecC different design alternatives concerning the system architecture (components and communication) can be explored and the specification is gradually refined and mapped to a final HW/SW implementation such that the constraints are satisfied optimally. The final hand-off for manufacturing includes software code compiled for the processors and the RTL descriptions for hardware synthesis.