1 | \subsection{Dissemination} |
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2 | |
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3 | The Coach project will bring new scientific results in various fields, such as high level synthesis, |
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4 | hardware/software codesign, virtual prototyping, harware oriented compilation technics, |
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5 | automatic parallelisation, etc. These results will be presented in the relevant International |
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6 | Conferences, namely DATE, DAC, or ICCAD. |
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7 | |
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8 | More generally, the Coach infrastructure and the design flow supported by the Coach |
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9 | tools and libraries will be promoted by proposing tutorials on FPGA oriented system level synthesis |
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10 | in various worshops and conferences. |
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11 | |
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12 | Following the general policy of the SoCLib platform, the COACH project will be an |
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13 | open infrastructure, and the Coach tools and libraries will available in the framework |
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14 | of the SoCLib WEB server. This server will be maintened by the UPMC/LIP6 laboratory. |
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15 | |
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16 | \subsection{Exploitation of results} |
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17 | |
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18 | The main goal of the Coach project is to help SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) |
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19 | to enter the world of MPSoC technologies. For small companies, the cost is a primary concern. |
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20 | Moreover, these companies have not always in-home expertise in hardware design and VHDL modelling. |
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21 | As the fabrication costs of an ASIC is generally too high for SMEs, the Coach project focus |
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22 | on FPGA technologies. Regarding the design tools, the cost of advanced ESL (Electronic System Design) |
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23 | tools is an issue, and the Coach project will follow the same general policy as the SoCLib platform : |
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24 | |
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25 | \begin{itemize} |
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26 | \item |
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27 | All software tools supporting the Coach design flow will be available as free software. |
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28 | All academic partners contributing to the Coach project agreed to distribute the ESL software |
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29 | tools under the same GPL license as the SoCLib tools. |
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30 | \item |
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31 | The SystemC simulation modelsafor the hardware components |
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32 | used by the SoCLib architectural template will be distributed as free software |
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33 | under a non-contaminant LGPL license. |
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34 | \item |
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35 | The synthesizable VHDL models supporting the neutral architectural template |
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36 | (corresponding to the SocLib IP cores library), will have two modes of dissemination. |
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37 | A typical MPSoC contains not only dedicated, synthesized coprocessors. It contains |
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38 | also general purpose, reusable components, such as processor cores, memory controllers |
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39 | optimised cache controllers, peripheral controllers, or bus controllers. |
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40 | For non commercial use (i.e. research or education in an academic context, |
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41 | or feasbility study in an industrial context), the synthesizable VHDL models will be freely available. |
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42 | For commercial use, commercial licenses will be negociated between the owners and the customers. |
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43 | \item |
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44 | The proprietary ALTERA and XILINX IP core libraries are commercial products |
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45 | that are not involved by the free software policy, but these libraries will be supported by the |
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46 | synthesis tools developped in the Coach project. |
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47 | \end{itemize} |
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48 | |
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49 | This general approach is supported by a large number of SMEs, as demonstrated by the "letters |
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50 | of interest" that have been collected during the preparation of the project : |
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51 | \begin{itemize} |
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52 | \item |
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53 | \item |
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54 | \item |
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55 | \item |
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56 | \item |
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57 | \end{itemize} |
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58 | |
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59 | \subsection{Management of Intellectual Property} |
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60 | |
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61 | A global consortium agreement will be defined during the first six monts of the project. |
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62 | As already stated, the Coach project has been prepared during one tear by a monthly meeting |
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63 | involving the five academic partners. The general free software policy described in the |
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64 | previous section has been agreed by academic partners and has been |
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65 | approved by all industrial participants. This free software policy will |
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66 | simplify the definition of the consortium agreement. |
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67 | |
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