Decoupling of Computation and Communication with a Communication Assist

Abstract. In an embedded multiprocessor system the minimum throughput and maximum latency of real-time applications are usually derived given the worst-case execution time of the software tasks. Derivation of the worst-case execution time becomes easier if it is independent of the available communication bandwidth. In this paper we show that the worst-case execution time of tasks does not depend on communication bandwidth if a Communication Assist (CA) is applied, despite that memory ports are shared. Furthermore we show that adding a CA increases the processor utilization and reduces the required communication bandwidth. Finally we show that the difference between the measured and computed worst-case processor utilization is less than 6%, for our MP3 playback application.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: DSD
• Authors: Arno Moonen, Marco Bekooij, Rene van den Berg, Jef L. van Meerbergen
• Keywords: Communication Bandwidth, DSD 2007, Hardware, Processor Utilization, Worst-case Execution Time