Design of Energy-Efficient Application-Specific Instruction Set Processors

After a brief introduction to low-power VLSI design, the design space of ASIP instruction set architectures (ISAs) is introduced with a special focus on important features for digital signal processing. Based on the degrees of freedom offered by this design space, a consistent ASIP design flow is proposed: this design flow starts with a given application and uses incremental optimization of the ASIP hardware, of ASIP coprocessors and of the ASIP software by using a top-down approach and by applying application-specific modifications on all levels of design hierarchy. A broad range of real-world signal processing applications serves as vehicle to illustrate each design decision and provides a hands-on approach to ASIP design. Finally, two complete case studies demonstrate the feasibility and the efficiency of the proposed methodology and quantitatively evaluate the benefits of ASIPs in an industrial context.

From the reviews:

"This book deals with the basic principles of design methodology that addresses the aspects of ASIP performance and energy optimizations. ... The chapters of the book are concise and well written. The book is timely and well organized. It clearly gives an adequate view of the currently hottest topics in ASIP design. ... The book should be of considerable interest for graduate-level students in Electrical and Computer Engineering, researchers, and specialists ... . I would certainly like to fully recommend this book ... ." (Mile Stojcev, Microelectronics Reliability, Vol. 45, 2005)