Articles and Insights
 |
Just Published: Issue 40 Future Fab International - Annual special ITRS focus issue of Future Fab |
|
 |
Whitepaper: Advancing the SystemC Analog/Mixed-Signal (AMS) Extensions —Introducing Dynamic Timed Data Flow To comply with demanding requirements and use cases (e.g., in automotive applications), new execution semantics and language constructs are being defined to facilitate a more reactive and dynamic behavior of the Timed Data Flow (TDF) model of computation as defined in the current SystemC AMS 1.0 standard. The proposed Dynamic TDF introduces fully complementary elements to enable a tighter time-accurate interaction between the AMS signal processing and control domain while keeping the modeling and communication abstract and efficient. The features of Dynamic TDF are presented in this paper by means of a typical example application from the automotive domain. |
|
 |
Whitepaper: SystemC AMS Extensions—Solving the Need for Speed Similar to Transaction-level Modeling (TLM), the SystemC AMS extensions introduce smart methods to abstract time and uses known techniques to abstract signal properties. However, analog behavior is continuous in time and continuous in value, captured in an equation system and often seen as difficult to abstract. Any abstraction method applied would result in a less accurate description of the analog behavior. This is not necessarily a problem, as long as the abstracted behavior does not impact the essential characteristics or functionality of the AMS system for the intended application. So, when applying these abstraction methods in a smart manner, a major improvement in simulation speed is obtained, enabling totally new AMS analysis and verification methods through simulation, which have never been exercised before. |
|
 |
The Next IC Design Methodology Transition Is Long Overdue Given that the RTL design abstraction has been in use for more than 15 years, it is no longer possible to consider it the leading-edge design approach that is required to bring us new, exciting consumer and industrial electronic products. Fortunately the move to the next level of abstraction using high-level synthesis in SystemC is well underway, and is demonstrating that it can deliver the required productivity. |
|
|
Viewpoint: Analog/Mixed-Signal (AMS) extensions for SystemC The AMS draft 1 standard focuses on the system-level and architecture modeling aspects of designing and verifying complex AMS systems. By having AMS extensions for SystemC, users can build an executable description of the AMS system in a C++ based manner, enabling seamless integration with HW/SW architectures in SystemC and functional models or software developed in C and C++. As such, the AMS extensions should not be considered as a replacement of existing hardware description languages, but should be seen as a valuable addition to ESL design methodologies. |
|