This paper addresses the increasing complexity of software design for multiprocessor embedded systems by proposing a designmethodology that combines a formal foundation based on the theory of models of computation (MoCs) and the industrial systemdesign language SystemC. The ForSyDe methodology provides thedesigner with SystemC class libraries that lead to executable system models, from which abstract analyzable models can be extracted. Using these abstract models, the design exploration andsynthesis process can make use of existing MoC theory by for instance incorporating efficient scheduling and buffer optimizationtechniques. The choice of SystemC as modeling language allowsfor an efficient implementation, since system model functions canbe directly compiled to target processors.