Abstract
The complexity of embedded systems is exploding into two interrelated but independently growing directions: architecture complexity and application complexity. Consequently, application characterization under the real input conditions is becoming more and more important. State-of-the-art application characterization frameworks mainly focus on a single design objective. A general purpose framework is required to satisfy multiple objectives of early design space exploration. This chapter proposes a multi-objective application characterization framework based on a visitor design pattern. High level source specifications are transformed into a trace tree representation by dynamic analysis. Trace tree representation is analysed by using visitor design pattern to get run-time characteristics of the application. Among other outcomes, application orientation and inherited spatial parallelism are key concerns in this article. Experimental results with MPEG-2 video decoder shows viability of the proposed framework.