Hardware Software Co-Design for Low Cost Embedded Systems Based on FPGA

The fundamental building blocks of a SoC (System on Chip) are its Intellectual Property (IP) cores, which are reusable hardware blocks designed to perform a particular task. For realizing SoC application, IP used may be customized to save silicon Area. With the abundance of proprietary and free IPs, and customized software, significant improvement in the overall system performance can be achieved. Low cost FPGAs, such as Spartan family from Xilinx, can be used effectively to demonstrate power and purpose of hardware software co-designed systems.