VLSI Design:

In this project, we address many hardware/software co-design issues in the development of a mobile and portable embedded system. In particular, we plan to study the VLSI architectures for wireless embedded applications. Through reconfigurable processor architecture used to develop a programmable DSP, we plan to implement different protocols or applications. However, a problem in such systems is often the higher energy consumption as compared to custom hardware solutions. Initial effort has resulted in the design of a reconfigurable DSP system with emphasis on achieving low energy consumption. Additional efforts will focus on the energy minimization for low-power embedded solutions, through software-based power minimization. Energy consumption can be reduced with a thorough analysis of the program with regard to power, and by modifying the code and the sequence of the code to achieve low-power realization. Also, the fully integrated embedded environment studies will address System-on-Chip design issues with the integration of ARM core and the programmable core. Initial effort has considered an integrated system with a MIPS processor and a reconfigurable DSP co-processor. We further plan to use the results in fine-tuning custom Applications in low-energy, embedded wireless environments.