Performance analysis is required in each stage of the SoC design cycle. Since the system level design is an iterative process, the analysis is applied to verify the performance constraints and to modify the system requirements accordingly before progressing to the next stages. Significant time and cost can be saved by checking and verifying the requirements in the early design stages rather than performing these later in the design cycle. Most of the performance analysis approaches target the communication part of the system that its representation varies between abstract channels, bus architecture and topology to protocol the is being used. To outline the performance analysis issues, the most popular techniques that may be used in every design stage and their importance have been clarified in this paper. A summary of the techniques and tools used has been provided. Additionally, a suggested set of metrics that can be used to evaluate these techniques and their definitions is also provided. The major performance analysis techniques have then been classified and compared according to these metrics or criterion Lastly, two examples of recent projects, PICO and POLIS which address the performance analysis issues as a main focus in building their design tools are presented at the end of the paper.
展开▼
