We present a technique and formal model for optimal synthesis of specialized heterogeneous multiprocessors, given task flow graphs to be executed in a pipelined (periodic) fashion. SOS is a formal approach to system synthesis using mixed integer-linear programming, ensuring optimally of the final solutions. SOS was extended to cover the pipelined design style. The extensions were made while trying to avoid a considerable increase in computation time over the non-pipelined case. The extensions include new binary variables as well as new constraints used to ensure numerical convergence. The present tool supports minimization of parameters such as initiation rate, latency and cost.>

Abstract { This paper describes the use of Uni ed System Construction tools under development at the University of Southern California. The goal of the project is to automate the construction of heterogeneous, applicationspeci c systems. Key elements of the USC system include multiprocessor synthesis, multi-chip datapath synthesis, memory-intensive synthesis, and multi-chip partitioning. The tools were applied to design of an image compression chip set, and results of using these tools are reported on here. Our results are comparable to manual designs reported in the literature. 1