Abstract: A comprehensive survey on main research topics in the area of Y-chart SoC system level is introduced.Three catalogs of research aspects,including hardware/software co-design,design reuse and highlevel design with physical information,are discussed in detail.From the view point of design methodologies and techniques,present system-level design work are summarized into the following three design approaches:SpecC-based design methodology (from top to down and stepwise-refinement),component-based mult-i processor SoC design methodology (from bottom to up and building block),and platform-based design methodology (meeting-in-the-middle and divide-and-conquer).Based on these generally accepted achievements,the relevant fundamental ideas,specification languages,design models and key techniques are also analyzed and compared in this survey.Some open research issues in the system-level design area are pointed out,and some future research directions are presented.