Fast simulation is necessary to gain an efficient design flow and to meet the time-to-market constraints. Many factors impact on simulation efficiency, including the modeling language used. SystemC is a C++-based language for the modeling of embedded systems. Though being widespread, SystemC results in being much slower than other HDLs, such as VHDL and Verilog, mainly because of a slow implementation of data types. On one hand, they are necessary for modeling HW behaviors (such as high-impedance bus operations), but they decrease the overall simulation performance. Thus, this paper proposes HDTlib, a library of data types that provides an efficient implementation of bit-accurate data types, compliant with the SystemC standard. Moreover, when the level of abstraction rises from RTL and more simulation performance is required, accuracy of HW-dependent behaviors is no longer necessary. For this reason, a type abstraction methodology is proposed to get rid of low level behaviors in order to find a tradeoff between accuracy and speed. Experimental results show that HDTlib is more efficient than the OSCI SystemC standard and that the type abstraction methodology allows to gain even faster simulation.

Efficient Implementation and Abstraction of SystemC Data Types for Fast Simulation

BOMBIERI, Nicola;FUMMI, Franco;GUARNIERI, Valerio;STEFANNI, Francesco;VINCO, Sara
2011-01-01

Abstract

Fast simulation is necessary to gain an efficient design flow and to meet the time-to-market constraints. Many factors impact on simulation efficiency, including the modeling language used. SystemC is a C++-based language for the modeling of embedded systems. Though being widespread, SystemC results in being much slower than other HDLs, such as VHDL and Verilog, mainly because of a slow implementation of data types. On one hand, they are necessary for modeling HW behaviors (such as high-impedance bus operations), but they decrease the overall simulation performance. Thus, this paper proposes HDTlib, a library of data types that provides an efficient implementation of bit-accurate data types, compliant with the SystemC standard. Moreover, when the level of abstraction rises from RTL and more simulation performance is required, accuracy of HW-dependent behaviors is no longer necessary. For this reason, a type abstraction methodology is proposed to get rid of low level behaviors in order to find a tradeoff between accuracy and speed. Experimental results show that HDTlib is more efficient than the OSCI SystemC standard and that the type abstraction methodology allows to gain even faster simulation.
2011
9782953050448
SystemC; data types; type abstraction; simulation
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11562/362201
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