Targeting complex embedded architectures by combining the multicore communications API (mcapi) with compile-time virtualisation

Abstract

Within the domain of embedded systems, hardware architectures are commonly characterised by application-specific heterogeneity. Systems may contain multiple dissimilar processing elements, non-standard memory architectures, and custom hardware elements. The programming of such systems is a considerable challenge, not only because of the need to exploit large degrees of parallelism but also because hardware architectures change from system to system. To solve this problem, this paper proposes the novel combination of a new industry standard for communication across multicore architectures (MCAPI), with a minimal-overhead technique for targeting complex architectures with standard programming languages (Compile-Time Virtualisation). The Multicore Association have proposed MCAPI as an industry standard for on-chip communications. MCAPI abstracts the on-chip physical communication to provide the application with logical point-to-point unidirectional channels between nodes (software thread, hardware core, etc.). Compile-Time Virtualisation is used to provide an extremely lightweight implementation of MCAPI, that supports a much wider range of architectures than its specification normally considers. Overall, this unique combination enhances programmability by abstracting on-chip communication whilst also exposing critical parts of the target architecture to the programming language.