Solving Hardware/Software Partitioning via a Discrete Dynamic Convexized Method

Hardware/software partitioning is an important step in the design of embedded systems. In this paper, the hardware/software partitioning problem is modeled as a constrained binary integer programming problem, which is further converted equivalently to an unconstrained binary integer programming problem by a penalty method. A local search method, HSFM, is developed to obtain a discrete local minimizer of the unconstrained binary integer programming problem. Next, an auxiliary function, which has the same global optimal solutions as the unconstrained binary integer programming problem, is constructed, and its properties are studied. We show that applying HSFM to minimize the auxiliary function can escape from previous local optima by the increase of the parameter value successfully. Finally, a discrete dynamic convexized method is developed to solve the hardware/software partitioning problem. Computational results and comparisons indicate that the proposed algorithm can get high-quality solutions.