系統單晶片之軟體發展流程

Abstract

IC設計在台灣十多年的發展歷史，其產品從早期之純硬體晶片演進至包含複雜軟體之系統單晶片，然而多數IC設計業者均為硬體導向，忽視軟、硬體共同設計流程之重要性，而導致甚多產品研發失敗的案例，有鑑於此問題之嚴重性，本論文旨在制定單晶片之軟體發展流程，以供業界參考使用。 系統單晶片的軟體並不僅是存放在ROM裡面的韌體，還包括使用此晶片之應用程式、驅動軟體、甚至即時系統，其內容甚為龐大且複雜，軟體設計的好壞攸關產品的成敗，因此需有嚴謹制度與流程，方能使所設計IC產品迅速導入市場。本研究分析國內現有IC軟、硬體的開發流程之問題，其癥結在於缺乏嚴謹軟、硬體合作審議制度及明確的軟體開發流程，進而依規劃、分析、設計、實作、整合等階段制定其軟體開發之任務與工作、輸出文件及審議重點，另因IC產品設計變更複雜，故將軟體結構管理制度也一併列入。 本研究所制定之流程已在本人服務之IC設計公司使用，且已獲得縮短產品開發時間、及早發現設計缺陷、增加軟體重用等益處。

IC design in Taiwan has been developing for more that 10 years, which evolved from pure hardware IC in the early years into SOC with complex software inside. But most of the IC design developers tend to focus more on the hardware without being aware of the importance of designing hardware and software at the same time, which leads to many cases of IC design failures. Being aware of the seriousness of the problem, the objective of this dissertation is to build a system of software developing process for SOC. The software in SOC not only firmware which stored in ROM, but also including application program、device driver、real-time operation system which use the IC. It’s content is huge and complex. Since the quality of the software design has a close link with the success and failure of the product, thus designing IC software requires strict rules and processes, in order to make the designed IC products marketable quickly. This research analysis the issues for present development process of IC hardware and software. The basic problem is that design process lack of exact review process and explicit software design process. To define the job, task, output documents and review key-point for software design process based on planning, analysis, design, implementation and integration phases. Because of the complex design change for IC product, also define software configuration management process. The design process of this paper had implemented in the IC design company, and obtained some benefits, including shorten IC product development schedule, find out design defects early and increase software reuse.