Direct Synthesis of Optimized DSP assembly code from signal flow block diagrams

by D.B. Powell, E. A. Lee, and W.C. Newman

in Proceedings of IEEE Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing,
ICASSP-92, Vol. 5, pp. 553-556, San Francisco, CA, 1992.

ABSTRACT

Block diagrams with signal flow semantics have proven their utility in system simulation and algorithm development. They can also be used as high-level languages for real-time system implementation and design. An approach to synthesizing optimized assembly code for programmable DSPs from block diagrams is described. The extensible block library defines code segments in a meta-assembly language that uses the syntax of the assembly code of the target processor, but symbolically references registers and memory. An optimizing code generator compiles these segments together, allocates registers and memory, and inserts data movement instructions as needed to produce optimized assembly code. In exchange for target-processor dependence in both the code generator and the block library, the system produces assembly code that can closely match the efficiency of hand-written code.