Hardware/Software co-design experience for onboard satellite navigation receiver

A. Dion1 (arnaud.dion@isae.fr)E. Boutillon2, V. Calmettes1, E. Liegeon3

1Université de Toulouse, ISAE, 2Lab-STICC, 3Thales Alenia Space

Context

Design flow

GPS and Galileo57 sat

LEO satSpot5

GEO SatMeteosat9

Case study

Decomposition

Algorithm specification

Platform definition

Mapping

Modules codingCommunications

Implementation

Untimed functional

Cycle approximate

Cycle approximateCycle true

SystemC Language

Refining

Cycle true

VisualC++ Microsoft

Space Studio Space Codesign Systems

Catapult Mentor Graphics PrecisionMentor GraphicsEDKXilinx

• Identification of the parallelism• Communication

synchronization Bus, direct link

• Granularity communication interfaceSame configuration parameters

• Approximation of the latency

200ns

Time

Time 45ms

Amount

4.103

2.103

Analysis

OPB Bus

FFT

Correlator Integrator

Configuration

Acquisition

Storage

SDRAM controller

Flash controllerSQRT

TRIGO

µC/OS-II

LocalRAM

RF Frontend

µBlaze

UART

PC Flash SDRAM

FIFO

Interfaces

Mapping

Slices DFF Mult BRAM

Available 13696 27392 136 136

User modules 4744 4723 14 9

Interfaces 2780 2644 0 8

Platform IPs 3313 3592 3 80

Total 10837 10959 17 97

Need optimization : Coding style Catapult

4 user interfaces to OPB.

Granularity

Results

Conclusion

Design time is reduced:Approx. 3 months

Early simulation of the designRefining of the specifications, of the architecture

Need a more complete IP library.Space-dedicated LEON processor, AMBA bus…

Communication protocol

Dynamic address, implementation

Tasks Mapping between hardware and software modules.

Interfaces and drivers are automatically generated for communication.

Hardware custom IP are still cycle approximate

Others IP are cycle true: Software IP, bus…Simulation of the solutions.

Resource estimation

• Validation of a new methodology for Thales Alenia Space.• Space Constraints:

radiation, power, life of the satellite…• Applications:

telecom, image processing, GNSS• Actual methodology:

Almost no reusing, no flexibility, design break.• New requirements:

flexibility, seamless design flow, design productivity.