This book is authored to address many challenging topics related to the multi-core embedded systems research area, starting with multi-core architectures and interconnects, embedded design methodologies for multi-core systems, to mapping of applications, programming paradigms and models of computation on multi-core embedded systems.
With the growing complexity of embedded systems and the rapid improvements in process technology the development of systems-on-chip and of embedded systems increasingly is based on integration of multiple cores, either homogeneous (such as processors) or heterogeneous. Modern systems are increasingly utilizing a combination of processors (CPUs, MCUs, DSPs) which are programmed in software, reconfigurable hardware (FPGAs, PLDs), and custom application–specific hardware. It appears likely that the next generation of hardware will be increasingly programmable, blending processors and configurable hardware.
The book discusses the work done regarding the interactions among multicore systems, applications and software views, and processors configuration and extension, which add a new dimension to the problem space. Multiple cores used in concert prove to be a new challenge forming a concurrent architecture with resources for scheduling, with a number of concurrent processes that perform communication, synchronization and input and output tasks. The choice of programming and threading models, whether symmetric or asymmetric, communication APIs, real-time OS services or application development consist of areas increasingly challenging in the realm of modern multi-core embedded systems-on-chip.
Beyond exploration of different architectures of multi-core embedded systems and of the network-on-chip infrastructures that ushered in support of these SoCs in a straightforward manner, the objectives of this book cover also the presentation of a number of interrelated issues. HW/SW development, tools and verification for multi-core systems, programming models, and models of computation for modern embedded systems are also explored.