EXPRESSION
is an Architecture Description Language (ADL) as well as a retargetable
compiler/simulator tool-kit for architectural design space exploration (DSE). A
processor-memory architecture can be captured using the Graphical User Interface (GUI).
The front-end of the tool-kit generates the EXPRESSION description for the
processor, which in turn steers automatic generation of retargetable compiler
and simulator.
The key features of our design methodology
include:
Ease of specification and modification of
architecture from the GUI.
Mixed behavioral/structural representation
supporting a natural, concise specification of the architecture.
Explicit specification of the memory subsystem
allowing novel memory organizations and hierarchies.
Efficient specification of architectural
resource constraints allowing extraction of detailed Reservation Tables (RTs)
for compiler scheduling.
The complete EXPRESSION
toolkit is now available as an Open Source Release in the public domain. The
goal of this Open Source release is to promote usage of
EXPRESSION ADL to specify processor-memory architectures and provide a
reference point for further research into ADLs
