It gives me immense pleasure to introduce this timely handbook to the research/- velopment communities in the ?eld of signal processing systems (SPS). This is the ?rst of its kind and represents state-of-the-arts coverage of research in this ?eld. The driving force behind information technologies (IT) hinges critically upon the major advances in both component integration and system integration. The major breakthrough for the former is undoubtedly the invention of IC in the 50's by Jack S. Kilby, the Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics 2000. In an integrated circuit, all components were made of the same semiconductor material. Beginning with the pocket calculator in 1964, there have been many increasingly complex applications followed. In fact, processing gates and memory storage on a chip have since then grown at an exponential rate, following Moore's Law. (Moore himself admitted that Moore's Law had turned out to be more accurate, longer lasting and deeper in impact than he ever imagined. ) With greater device integration, various signal processing systems have been realized for many killer IT applications. Further breakthroughs in computer sciences and Internet technologies have also catalyzed large-scale system integration. All these have led to today's IT revolution which has profound impacts on our lifestyle and overall prospect of humanity. (It is hard to imagine life today without mobiles or Internets ) The success of SPS requires a well-concerted integrated approach from mul- ple disciplines, such as device, design, and application.

This book presents a coherent introduction to and an overview of state-of-the-art techniques in the design of complex embedded systems. The volume brings together revised papers initially presented at a workshop held at Samos, Greece, in July and reviewed invited articles. The papers are organized in topical sections on system-level design and simulation, compiler and mapping technology, embedded processor and architectures, and applications.