Logic optimization and code generation for embedded control applications

We address software optimization for embedded control systems. The Esterel language is used as the front-end specification; Esterel compiler v6 is used to partition the control circuit and data path; the resulting intermediate representation of the design is a control-data network. This paper emphasizes the optimization of the control circuit portion and the code generation of the logic network. The new control-data network representation has four types of nodes: control, multiplexer, predicate and data expression; the control portion is a multi-valued logic network (MV-network). We use an effective multi-valued logic network optimization package called MVSIS for the control optimization. It includes algebraic methods to perform multi-valued algebraic division, factorization and decomposition and logic simplification methods based on observability don't cares. We have developed methods to evaluate a control-data network based on both an MDD and sum-of-products representation of the multi-valued logic functions. The MDD-based approach uses multi-valued intermediate variables and generates code according to the internal BDD structure. The SOP-based code is proportional to the number of cubes in the logic network. Preliminary results compare the two approaches and the optimization effectiveness.