Hardware definition method including determining whether to implement a function as hardware or software

Abstract

A hardware definition system and method includes a computer processor analyzing software function modules of a software program, and generating, for each of at least a subset of the software function modules, and on the basis of the analyzing step, a respective setting indicating whether the respective function module is to be implemented as a respective hardware module or as a software module executed on a hardware module defined in a hardware module library.

1 . (canceled) 
     
     
         2 . A method for automatically generating at least a part of a hardware netlist of a chip, the method comprising:
 assembling a definition for a chip, the definition defining a plurality of hardware modules, wherein, for each of at least some of the defined plurality of hardware modules, one or more features of the respective hardware modules is selectable from a respective plurality of features by selection of one or more of a plurality of corresponding parameters, the definition not defining the parameter selection;   transforming each of a plurality of algorithms into a respective form that is specific to execution on the defined plurality of hardware modules;   for each of the defined plurality of hardware modules, determining required functionality of the respective hardware module based on the transformed algorithms; and   for each of the defined hardware modules, in accordance with the determined required functionality of the respective hardware module, defining a respective selection of parameters from the respective plurality of corresponding parameters of the hardware module.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the defined parameter selection for each of at least one of the defined hardware modules, defines a selection of fewer than all of the plurality of corresponding parameters of the respective hardware module, such that at least one of the plurality of corresponding parameters of the respective hardware modules is not selected by the definition. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the parameter selections are performed to provide a minimal number of parameter selections. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the parameter selections are performed for optimizing at least one of a size of the chip, an operation speed, and a power dissipation.