OptiMMA

The OptiMMA project will enable the mapping of emerging, dynamic software applications on complex Multi-Processor Systems-on-Chip (MP-SoC). This will be achieved through the use of Middleware components, which will be able to mediate between embedded software and the hardware platforms. Thus, they manage - at run-time - the memory storage, energy consumption, bandwidth and computation resources of the embedded system. modeling and customization of the Middleware components is a key element of the OptiMMA project. It will create a broad user base and enable the valorization of the results among a wide body of economic actors in Flanders, including economic actors that specialize in multimedia and telecommunication applications on mobile devices, medical imaging devices, embedded software design, hardware platforms design, design tools, etc. The OptiMMA project addresses the shortcomings of modern design technology with breakthrough innovative solutions. It proposes to decouple the dynamic embedded software from the MP-SoC hardware. The OptiMMA project introduces novel Middleware components in the form of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), System Libraries, Real Time Operating System (RTOS) components and pre-compiler tools. The major innovation lies in the use of customization and modeling of these components in order to exploit all the information availbale to the system designer at design-time, while being able to adapt according to usage scenarios at run-time. Trade-offs among system resource usage (e.g., computation vs storage vs energy) will also be utilized by the Middleware components at run-time to schedule and assign the resource requensts to the MP-SoC platform. One of the testbenches for the OptiMMA Middleware is a new 3D graphics coding cheme that goes beyond the state-of-the-art, to be designed within the scope of the project. The choice is based on the anticipated dynamism of the algorithm and its application potential in many different domains in embedded systems (graphics for medical imaging, navigational systems, personal multimedia terminals, video games, etc.). Nevertheless, the Middleware components will target a broad range of dynamic applications, including wireless networking, multimedia, telecommunications, security, etc. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach, the focus will be on the development of Middleware for a heterogeneous MP-SoC hardware platform with at least 2 different types of processing elements and at least 3 levels of memory hierarchy. A Network-on-Chip (NoC) will be used for the communication interconnect among the MP-SoC elements.

Trefwoorden:Dynamic software