MetaCore: An application-specific programmable DSP development system

This paper describes the MetaCore system which is an application-specific i nstruction-set processor (ASIP) development system targeted for digital sig nal processor (DSP) applications, The goal of the MetaCore system is to off er an efficient design methodology meeting specifications given as a combin ation of performance, cost, and design turnaround time. The MetaCore system consists of two major design stages: design exploration and design generat ion. In the design exploration stage, MetaCore system accepts a set of benc hmark programs and structural/behavioral specifications for the target proc essor and estimates the hardware cost and performance for each hardware con figuration being explored, Once a hardware configuration and instruction se t are chosen, the system helps generate the target processor design in the form of hardware description language (HDL) along with the application prog ram development tools such as C compiler, assembler, and instruction set si mulator. The effectiveness of the MetaCore system was verified with a succe ssful design of MDSP-II, a programmable DSP processor targeted for mobile c ommunication.