The MULTICUBE Design Flow - Multi-objective Design Space Exploration of Multiprocessor SoC Architectures - page 11

1.3 Design Tool Integration based on the MULTICUBE XML

Interface

Strategic importance from the point of view of the MULTICUBE exploitation is
associated to the common XML Tool Interface Specification for the integration of
the different tools and use cases. The common interface enabled the independent
development of software modules and a seamless integration of design tools and
data structures into a common design environment. The specification is defined in
terms of XML, a widely used standard notation. To introduce the notation, let us
highlight that, in the MULTICUBE design flow, there are two types of user agents to
interact with the framework: the use case and simulator provider and the exploration
architect . The simulator is the executable model of the use case and it is a single
executable file (binary or script) which interacts with the DSE tool to provide the
value of the estimated metrics, given an input configuration. The MULTICUBE
project addressed the formalization of the interaction between the simulator and the
DSE tools, that is essentially an automatic program-to-program interaction (see Fig.
1.4 ):

1. The DSE tool generates one feasible system configuration whose system metrics
should be estimated by the simulator.
2. The simulator generates a set of system metrics to be fed back to the DSE tool.
To automatically link the use case simulator to the DSE tool, a design space defi-
nition file should be released by the use case and simulator provider together with
the executable model of the use case (simulator). This file describes the set of con-
figurable parameters of the simulator, their values range and the set of evaluation
metrics that can be estimated by the simulator. This file describes also how to invoke
the simulator as well as an optional set of rules with which the generated parameter
values should be compliant. The rules are only used by the exploration tool to avoid
the generation of invalid or unfeasible solutions during the automated exploration

Use Case
and Simulaton
Provider

XML
Design
Space

Exploration
Architect

Design Space
Exploration
Tool

XML
System
Config.

Human
Computer
Interaction

Use
Case

XML
System
Metrics

Simulator

Fig. 1.4 Overview of the tool interfaces via XML