Electronic System-Level Design Tools:Hardware/Software Integration

Hardware/Software Integration

Nora:

That's quite a few kinds of system-level tools. I heard that hardware /software integration was also a major problem. Is that true?

Sam:

Very true, I'm afraid. Normally, the hardware computer or special processor is designed first. Later, application software is integrated and tested on the new hardware. This sequential process is the hardware / software integration. Let me sketch you a quick picture of the integration process. (See Figure 5.2.)

Note that a soft cloud represents the software, and a hard box shows the hardware. The integration is the combining of these two.

As we discussed earlier, the system designer partitions the functions into hardware or software. These functions are designed in more detail and are then integrated.

The integration, of course, suffers from any errors made in both hardware and software development. But the problems often show up during the integration verification process. Since the hardware is more difficult and costly to change, most effort tries to fix all problems in the software.

Nora:

Is there a solution to the integration problem?

05fig02

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