A Computer-Aided Design Methodology for Application-Specific Embedded Processors

技术的进步使得在一块集成电路上集成处理器核心、程序只读存储器和专用电路成为可能。因此，高级语言编译器是克服嵌入式系统设计复杂性的重要工具。这项研究是关于开发一个可重定向的编译器框架，该框架可以为各种处理器体系结构生成优化的代码。该方法包括开发一种机器描述语言来描述广泛的处理器架构。其他任务包括：构建可重定向的代码生成器和优化器，以及用于编译代码的模拟器以获得性能指标。正在探索关于功能单元、寄存器的数量以及它们之间的互连的拓扑可参数化的非常通用的代码优化算法。开发的算法正被集成到一个框架中，用于机器相关的代码生成和优化。

Advances in technology have made it possible to integrate a processor core, a program ROM, and application-specific circuitry all on a single IC. Thus, high-level language compilers are essential tools for overcoming complexity in embedded system design. This research is on development of a retargetable compiler framework that can generate optimized code for a variety of processor architectures. The approach includes development of a machine description language to describe a wide range of processor architectures. Further tasks include: building a retargetable code generator and optimizer, and a simulator for the compiled code to obtain performance metrics. Very general code optimization algorithms that are parameterizable with respect to the number of functional units, registers, and the topology of interconnect between them are being explored. The developed algorithms are being integrated into a framework for machine-dependent code generation and optimization.