The metaport is a coding style that can effectively manage code complexity for complex ESL models, especially models that are intended for high-level synthesis. This presentation will give an overview of the metaport concept and dive into the details of a possible implementation.

This presentation discusses work performed by the OCP-IP Committee, specifically modeling that OCP built upon the TLM-2.0 standard.

The design and implementation of processors is a complex task. Architecture Description Languages (ADLs) were created to extend existing HDLs, to ease the process of developing and prototyping an architecture by providing a set of tools and algorithms to optimize and automate some of the tedious parts. While much has been done on the specification and business levels of ADLs, there is a huge gap between ADL specifications/simulators and real life processors written in RTL. This project addresses the issues of bringing an ADL description to the RTL level, and reports the development of an extension of ArchC to support this level.

This tutorial-style presentation illustrates some techniques to avoid the inclusion of clocks in SystemC simulations and provide results of simple experiments showing the simulation performance benefits. Concepts discussed include synchronization, clock-free timers, and the effects of clocks on performance. A proposal is made for a simple SystemC class that can simplify coding when clocks are thought to be needed.

SystemC is well on the road to adoption in a number of areas within the Electronic System Level (ESL) space, but many of those are separated islands today. Virtual Prototyping has seen a huge leap forward with the standardization of TLM 2.0. SystemC is also being used successfully for high-level synthesis at the module level, but to make SystemC pervasive, there must be a link between the applications. In addition, to reap the maximum productivity gains from a migration to a higher-level of abstraction, the verification methodology must also change in significant ways. In this presentation we will explore a new TLM-driven design and verification methodology that is being developed within Cadence, critiqued by their customers and documented in a book, which will be released over a number of months as pieces of it mature.