Recent trends in embedded system software performance estimation

It is observed that due to the availability of fast and highly efficient processors, many embedded system developers are attracted to implement the majority of the system components in software rather than hardware. Software implementation offers a great level of flexibility and scalability of the design. At the same time, a wide choice exists between generic processors, DSP processors, network processors, etc. This increases the design space exploration by many folds to select an appropriate processor or a processor version for a specific application or application component. In this review, recent prominent directions for embedded software performance estimation have been discussed and their salient features are summarized.