Although multiprocessor systems are becoming a trend today, yet few synthesis
tools currently available can actually automate the design of multiprocessor
systems. Performance synthesis methodology (PSM) is an object-oriented
system-level synthesis approach to multiprocessor system design. Since PSM
was designed specifically for the synthesis of multiprocessor systems, it is
not only much more efficient when synthesizing parallel systems, but also
produces better parallel systems than currently available uniprocessor system-
level synthesis tools. Colored Petri nets used in modeling system components
and object modeling technique used in the design process have both contributed
to the shortening of system development time and to the reduction of design
cost. First, user specification consisting of functional models and performance
constraints is translated into architecture models. Then, the system is
configured by selecting the method of control, the memory organization,
the type of processor, and the type of system interconnection. Finally, a
heuristic design space exploration algorithm is used to generate several
near-optimal design alternatives. The best architecture is chosen by
evaluating the design alternatives using a flexible performance estimation
formula that mainly considers system level design features, such as system
throughput, utilization, reliability, scalability, fault-tolerance, and cost.
Several systems were successfully synthesized using this top-down
object-oriented PSM, thus showing its feasibility as a design automation tool
for parallel systems.