High-Performance Embedded Computing

384 Chapter 7 Hardware and Software Co-design

elements that do not help with the application at hand. Removing excess compo-

nents is often as important as adding new features.

co-design as a

methodology

As the name implies, hardware/software co-design means jointly designing

hardware and software architectures to meet performance, cost, and energy

goals. Co-design is a radically different methodology than the layered abstrac-

tions used in general-purpose computing. Because co-design tries to optimize

many different parts of the system at the same time, it makes extensive use of

tools for both design analysis and optimization.

Increasingly, hardware/softw ...