Model-based Software Design Tools for the Cell Processor

Abstract

This thesis presents a multi-core architecture, the Cell processor, and an updated model-based tool suite named the Signal Processing Platform (SPP) that supports development of high performance signal processing applications, such as an automatic target recognition system, that execute on and take advantage of the computational power of the Cell. It introduces the move from single-core to multi-core architectures. Specifically, it covers the larger features of the Cell processor that allow its specialized multi-core architecture to provide a significant amount of increased performance. Specialized configurations call for specialized programming in order to harness the available performance increase. Such high computation configurations are prime targets for signal processing applications. A major goal existed for the SPP tool set to provide a system construct for executing applications on the Cell. Modifications to the tool suite were presented and monitored by porting an example automatic target recognition application to the Cell. This paper shows the steps of supporting the multi-core architecture with the design tools, yielding a significant increase in performance, and closes with future techniques for improving the automation element to the design process.