Hardware and Software Codesign for Multimedia Capable Portable Devices using SystemC

Multimedia capable portable devices such as 3G phones will host a variety of new applications. Although the underlying push for new applications in such devices is driven by the increase in bandwidth offered by 3G, it is clear that many of the “new” applications will require the provision of new and powerful graphics/video technology within the mobile device itself. Within a computing device, high bandwidth and computational cost are associated with anything but the simplest of graphics, and as a result the graphics subsystem is generally one of the most critical elements of a system, requiring particular attention in the design process. The project is examining the suitability of SystemC, a system description language, for Hardware/Software Codesign of a graphics system in a typical next generation WAP compatible device.