Modeling Heterogeneous SoCs with SystemC: A Digital/MEMS Case Study

Abstract

Designers of SoCs with non-digital components, such as analog or MEMS devices, can currently use high-level system design languages, such as SystemC, to model only the digital parts of a system. This is a significant limitation, making it difficult to perform key system design tasks — design space exploration, hardware-software co-design and system verification — at an early stage. This paper describes lumped analytical models of a class of complex non-digital devices — MEMS microhotplates — and presents techniques to integrate them into a SystemC simulation of a heterogeneous System-on-a-Chip (SoC). This approach makes the MEMS component behavior visible to a full-system simulation at higher levels, enabling realistic system design and testing. The contributions made in this work include the first SystemC models of a MEMS-based SoC, the first modeling of MEMS thermal behavior in SystemC, and a detailed case study of the application of these techniques to a real system. In addition, this work provides insights into how MEMS device-level design decisions can significantly impact system level behavior; it also describes how full-system modeling can help detect such phenomena and help to address detected problems early in the design flow.