# A Simulator and Compiler Framework for Agile Hardware-Software Co-design Evaluation and Exploration

**Authors:** T. Sorensen, A. Manocha, E. Tureci, M. Orenes-Vera, J. L. Aragón, M. Martonosi  
**Venue:** ICCAD, 2020 (Invited)  
**PDF:** [iccad2020.pdf](../iccad2020.pdf) | **Full Markdown:** [iccad2020.md](../markdown/iccad2020.md)

This invited paper describes the DEC++ compiler and MosaicSim simulator pair, developed as part of the DECADES project for designing and taping out a new heterogeneous architecture.

## Key Contributions

- **Full-stack co-design**: Compiler (DEC++) and simulator (MosaicSim) designed specifically for agile hardware-software co-design exploration in heterogeneous systems.
- **DECADES project**: Multi-team effort to design and tape out a new heterogeneous architecture.
- **Case studies**: Design space explorations for data science application acceleration and heterogeneous parallel architectures.

## Summary

With the end of transistor scaling trends, performance improvements now come from specialization. This paper presents the DEC++ compiler and MosaicSim simulator as complementary tools for exploring the vast design space of heterogeneous architectures, enabling rapid evaluation of choices across programming models, compilers, ISAs, and specialized hardware.