A Practical Introduction to Hardware/Software Codesign 2/e (paper)

This textbook serves as an introduction to the subject of embedded systems design, with emphasis on integration of custom hardware components with software. The key problem addressed in the book is the following: how can an embedded systems designer strike a balance between flexibility and efficiency? The book describes how combining hardware design with software design leads to a solution to this important computer engineering problem.  The book covers four topics in hardware/software codesign: fundamentals, the design space of custom architectures, the hardware/software interface and application examples. The book comes with an associated design environment that helps the reader to perform experiments in hardware/software codesign. Each chapter also includes exercises and further reading suggestions.

Improvements in this second edition include labs and examples using modern FPGA environments from Xilinx and Altera, which will make the material in this book applicable to a greater number of courses where these tools are already in use.  More examples and exercises have been added throughout the book.

“If I were teaching a course on this subject, I would use this as a resource and text. If I were a student who wanted to learn codesign, I would look for a course that at least used a similar approach. If I were an engineer or engineering manager who wanted to learn more about codesign from a very practical perspective, I would read this book first before any other. When I first started learning about codesign as a practitioner, a book like this would have been the perfect introduction.”
--Grant Martin, Tensilica--

這本教科書是介紹嵌入式系統設計的入門書，強調將自定義硬體元件與軟體整合。書中討論的主要問題是：嵌入式系統設計師如何在靈活性和效能之間取得平衡？書中描述了如何將硬體設計與軟體設計結合，解決這個重要的電腦工程問題。書中涵蓋了硬體/軟體協同設計的四個主題：基礎知識、自定義架構的設計空間、硬體/軟體介面和應用實例。書中附帶一個設計環境，幫助讀者進行硬體/軟體協同設計的實驗。每章還包括練習和進一步閱讀建議。

這本第二版的改進包括使用Xilinx和Altera等現代FPGA環境的實驗和示例，這使得本書的內容適用於更多已經在使用這些工具的課程。書中還增加了更多的示例和練習題。

「如果我要教授這門課程，我會把這本書作為資源和教材。如果我是一個想學習協同設計的學生，我會尋找至少使用類似方法的課程。如果我是一個想從實際角度了解更多關於協同設計的工程師或工程經理，我會先閱讀這本書，而不是其他任何書籍。當我作為一個實踐者開始學習協同設計時，這本書將是完美的入門指南。」
--Grant Martin, Tensilica--