Processor Design provides insight into a number of different flavors of processor architectures and their design, software tool generation, implementation, and verification. After a brief introduction to processor architectures and how processor designers have sometimes failed to deliver what was expected, the authors introduce a generic flow for embedded on-chip processor design and start to explore the vast design space of on-chip processing. The types of processor cores covered include general purpose RISC cores, traditional DSP, a VLIW approach to signal processing, processor cores that can be customized for specific applications, reconfigurable processors, protocol processors, Java engines, and stream processors. Co-processor and multi-core design approaches that deliver application-specific performance over and above that which is available from single-core designs are also described.

The special design requirements for processors targeted for FPGA implementation, clock generation and distribution in microprocessor circuits, and clockless realization of processors are addressed. Tools and methodologies for application-specific embedded processor design are covered, together with processor modelling and early estimation techniques, and programming tool support for custom processors. The book concludes with a glance to the future of embedded on-chip processors.

Dr. Jari Nurmi is Professor at Tampere University of Technology and his expertises lie in: DSP Processor Architecture, Network-on-Chip, Embedded System-on-Chip Design, Integrated Signal Processing and Digital Communication Circuits.

Jari Nurmi has edited one successful book for Springer.