3. Architecture selection criteria and evaluation

Like many industrial choices, the choice of microprocessor architecture is based on two types of criteria: technical criteria (performance, power consumption, available peripherals, memory capacity, etc.) and non-technical criteria ("viability" of the supplier, market acceptance of the architecture, etc.).

The choice of a microprocessor is often just one aspect of a larger problem. Indeed, the dimensions of the problem are manifold:

• a set of technical criteria;

• a range of application areas (workstations, PCs, peripheral controllers, embedded/mobile, control systems, etc.);

• a list of microprocessor architectures selected a priori ;

• a set of system architectures envisaged for these different applications;

...