Synthesis of mixed-signal designs from behavioral specifications must
address analog-digital partitioning. In other words, determining what
portions of the design are best implemented using analog and digital
circuitry. In this work, we target reconfigurable mixed-signal systems
composed of field-programmable analog and digital arrays. These
field-programmable systems are invaluable for rapid hardware
prototyping and evaluation. We begin with system behavior specified
using a signal-/data-flow graph representation. This is partitioned
into analog and digital domains, and then mapped onto the target
mixed-signal hardware. The solution must satisfy constraints on
imposed by the target mixed-signal architecture on available
configurable resources, available data-converters, their resolution
and speed, and I/O pins. The quality of the solution is evaluated
based two metrics, namely feasibility and cost. The former is a
measure of the validity of the solution with respect to the
constraints. The latter measures the performance of the system based
on area, bandwidth and noise.
