ACOTES: Advanced Compiler Technologies for Embedded Streaming Submission to the Special Issue on European HiPEAC NoE Member's Projects

Streaming applications are based on a data-driven approach where compute components consume and produce unbounded data vec- tors. Streaming oriented systems have become dominant in a wide range of domains, including embedded applications and DSPs However, programming efficiently for streaming architectures is a very challenging task, having to carefully partition the computation and map it to processes in a way that best matches the underlying multi-core streaming architectures, as well as having to take into account the needed resources (memory, processing, real-time re- quirements, etc.) and communication overheads (processing and delay) between the processors. These challenges have led to a number of suggested solu- tions, whose goal is to improve the programmer's efficiency in developing applications that process massive streams of data on programmable, parallel embedded architectures. StreamIt is one such example. Another more recent approach is that developed by the ACOTES (Advanced Compiler Technologies for Embedded Streaming) project. The ACOTES approach for streaming appli- cations consists of compiler-assisted mapping of streaming tasks to highly parallel systems in order to maximize cost-effectiveness, both in terms of energy and in terms of design effort. The analysis and transformation techniques automate large parts of the partition- ing and mapping process, based on the properties of the application domain, on the quantitative information about the target systems, and on programmer directives. This paper presents the outcomes of the ACOTES project, a 3- year collaborative work of industrial (NXP, ST, IBM, Silicon Hive, NOKIA) and academic (UPC, INRIA, MINES ParisTech) partners, and advocates the use the Advanced Compiler Technologies that we developed to support Embedded Streaming.