Object oriented development method for reconfigurable embedded systems

The authors present a navel method for developing reconfigurable systems ta rgeted at embedded system applications. The paper shows how an existing obj ect oriented design method (MOOSE) has been adapted to include reconfigurab le hardware (FPGAs). Previous research an reconfigurable computing has conc entrated on the efficient mapping of algorithms to FPGAs. It must be realis ed that reconfigurable hardware usually forms part of much larger embedded systems, which include other hardware components, memories, and processors executing significant software tasks. The work represents a significant adv ance over current embedded system design methods in that it integrates the use of reconfigurable hardware components with a systematic design method f or complete systems including both hardware and software. The development t echniques are illustrated by a practical example. Although the enhanced met hodology is applicable to some reconfigurable computing systems, further wo rk is planned to extend our design technique to exploit the potential benef its of embedded systems which can be dynamically reconfigured at system fun -time, The final objective is to produce an abject oriented design methodol ogy where system objects can be seamlessly implemented in either software o r reconfigurable hardware.