Spec-C,%20Handel-C,%20SystemC%20:%20A%20Comparative%20Study - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Spec-C,%20Handel-C,%20SystemC%20:%20A%20Comparative%20Study
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Currently, Celoxica provides a development suite called DK4 that uses Handel C. ... Many more alternatives offered, SystemC, Spec C, Handel C, Impulse C, etc... – PowerPoint PPT presentation
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Title: Spec-C,%20Handel-C,%20SystemC%20:%20A%20Comparative%20Study
1
Spec-C, Handel-C, SystemC A Comparative Study
- By Nikola Rank
- 13 March 2006
2
What is a Hardware Description Language(HDL)?
- A textual approach to describing electrical
circuits. - Not limited to circuit structure, can describe
temporal/operational behavior. - Popular examples VHDL, Verilog
- Handel C, SystemC, SpecC are not true HDLs!
3
Motivation for Higher Level
- These System-level description languages are
crucial for SOC design and testing. - Work at varying levels of abstraction from the
underlying hardware. - Simplify hardware/software partitioning by
describing both with a single, C-based language. - Enhanced simulation and debugging
- performance.
4
Handel C
- Developed by Oxford Hardware Compilation Group
- Based on the language Occam
- Goal Enable someone not familiar with H/W to do
H/W design - Currently, Celoxica provides a development suite
called DK4 that uses Handel C.
5
What does Handel add to ANSI-C?
- Parallelism
- Timing
- Interfaces
- Clocks
- RAM/ROM
- Shared expression
- Communications
- Handel-C libraries
- Floating Point component library
- Bit manipulation
- Macro functions for hardware block reuse
6
What doesnt Handel C support
- Recursion
- Side effects
- Standard libraries
- Malloc()
- Standard floating point
- Pointers
- Aside from these, everything else in C is
supported by Handel C
7
Handel C design flow
- Sample Handel C design flow (Based on Celoxica
toolset) - Goal is implementation of JPEG 2000 algorithm
Image source Celoxica Presentation1
8
System C
- Offered by the Open SystemC Initiative (OSCI)
- Implemented via C library, runs on any C
compiler. - Includes constructs for testing/simulation as
well as synthesis.
9
System C model
Image source Synthesizable SystemC 2
10
Synthesizable Subset
- Only a subset of the SystemC library is suitable
for synthesis of a circuit. - This subset closely matches VHDL or another
underlying HDL. - In reality, most tools actually convert the
SystemC to HDL for synthesis.
11
System C design flow
Image source Synthesizable SystemC 2
12
System C from UML?
- The next level of abstraction above C is UML.
- It may be possible to generate synthesizable
SystemC code from a UML model. - Leads to even shorter design times.
Image source Synthesizable SystemC Code from UML
Models3
13
Spec C
- First developed in 1997 at University of
California - Uses its own special compiler, a reference
compiler is freely available. - Designed to be true superset of ANSI-C
- Allows timing specification.
14
Spec C model
- Parallelism
- State Transition
- Structural Hierarchy
- Exception Handling
- Timing Constraints
- Synchronization
- Communication
- Data Path
15
Spec-C design flow
Image source The SpecC Methodology4
16
Conclusions
- There is no doubt a push in the direction of
higher level languages for hardware design. - Many more alternatives offered, SystemC, Spec C,
Handel C, Impulse C, etc - None are perfect, none are the industry standard
(Some more prominent than others). - Future will hold even higher levels of
abstraction.
17
References
- 1 Software-Compiled System DesignA Methodology
for Field ProgrammableSystem-on-Chip Design. - EDP paper presentation. Jeff Jussel. April 15,
2003 (Celoxica) - 2 Synthesizable SystemC. Federico Angiolini.
2005-2006 DEIS University of Bologna. - 3 Synthesizable SystemC Code from UML Models.
W.H. Tan, P.S. Thiagarajan,W.F. Wong, Y. Zhu.
School of ComputingNational University of
Singapore. S.K. Pilakkat. Institute for Infocomm
ResearchSingapore http//www.comp.nus.edu.sg/ctp/
publications/UML_SoC.pdf - 4 The SpecC Methodology. Andreas Gerstlauer.
Center for Embedded Computer Systems University
of California, Irvine. 2001. http//www.cecs.uci.e
du/SpecC/ - 5 Handel-C Language Reference Manual. Embedded
Solutions Limited Version 2.1 - 6 SpecC Language Reference Manual. SpecC
Technology Open Consortium Version 2.0. December
12, 2002 - 7 SystemC 2.0.1 Language Reference Manual. Open
SystemC Initiative San Jose, California. 2003 - 8 Presentation by SpecC Technology Open
Consortium http//www.specc.gr.jp/tech/stoc_dac00
_presen.pdf - 9 A Survey on the Handel-C Language. Altaf
Abdul Gaffar. http//www.iis.ee.ic.ac.uk/frank/su
rp99/article1/amag97
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