Adriatic Objectives

Objectives.
what is this project all about?

Advanced Methodology for Designing ReconfIgurable SoC and
Application-Targeted IP-entities in wireless Communications

ADRIATIC is a cooperative R&D project funded by the European Commission's "IST" initiative. It addresses several scientific/technological and business issues associated with advanced microelectronics systems design and development. ADRIATIC work specifically targets wireless applications, which is a field of increasing importance in the modern, highly connected world.

Almost by construction, the definition, design and development of modern integrated circuits (so-called "SoC"'s - Systems on Chip) is a complex and risky affair. The electronics industry today has great need for development tools (and the working methods they rely on) which address this quite specific complexity. ADRIATIC targets the development of an advanced high-level hardware/software co-design and co-verification methodology, along with tools for reconfigurable SoCs. This is supplemented with back-end design tools for the implementation of the reconfigurable logic blocks of the SoC device.

Due to the complex problems SoCs are designed to solve, their very use can bring additional problems which demand resolution if they are to be commercially and technically viable. These issues can mostly be brought down to economics (cost) and power consumption. Both of these can be addressed by flexible re-use of SoC resources - a technique generally known as reconfiguration. ADRIATIC targets the definition of the requirements of a reconfigurable SoC technology, specifically aimed at signal processors for wireless terminals.

To verify and demonstrate the tools and methods, ADRIATIC plans for the implementation of two reconfigurable processors, specifcally for HIPERLAN/2 wireless terminals (a video application processor and a baseband communication processor). Evaluation and measurement of the efficiency of the ADRIATIC methodology (using the appropriate metrics of SoC design field) will form a benchmark for the performance of the results obtained.

Though ADRIATIC is an acronym, it is also the name of the home of an endangered species of dolphin. The dolphin is a creature which expresses intelligence, agility, and seamless adaptation to its environment, which are ambitions to which our project fully subscribes.