Hardware-Software Co-Design for Performance
Hardware-Software Co-Design for Performance Hardware-software co-design means building software and hardware in tandem to meet clear goals. It helps teams reach peak performance and better energy use. Start from the workload itself and the targets, not from a single component. By aligning on metrics early, you can spot bottlenecks and choose the right design split. Principles Start with workload and performance targets Gather data across layers: compiler, OS, and hardware counters Model trade-offs between speed, power, and silicon area Use clear abstractions to keep interfaces stable while exploring options Create fast feedback loops that show the impact of changes Optimize data movement and the memory hierarchy Real-world systems benefit when firmware, drivers, and the OS scheduler are part of the discussion. Data movement often dominates latency; moving computation closer to data can unlock big gains without sprawling hardware. ...