High-level-language system design gains tool support

-- EDN, 4/13/2000

Following its participation last year in the launch of the SystemC initiative for system design in high-level languages, Synopsys has added CoCentric System Studio to its software, providing an environment in which you can work from a high-level description to achieve concurrent development of hardware and software. From a system description in C, C++, or SystemC, the tool automatically partitions code destined to be software blocks into C or C++, and code that will produce hardware blocks into SystemC.

The tools support integration of control and data-flow functions, allowing any level of nesting of either structure within the other, letting you develop complex hierarchical structures. Simulation is hierarchical; you can use high-level simulators with HDL simulators and with instruction-set simulators at the DSP or µP level. You use the same model for verification and implementation. Synopsys calls this approach "transparent" modeling, because the internal structure of the model is "visible" to the tool set, and the model is tool-independent, assisting with portability of intellectual property at the system level.

The typing mechanism of C++'s class libraries lets you use one functional model for a range of data types by selecting parameters, reducing a proliferation of libraries. The tool also supports the ability for distributed teams to work on complex projects; it does not yet offer a fully automated path from system level to hardware. The company plans to add synthesis from SystemC this year, and, although the process will be a synthesis to netlist and not a translation from SystemC to HDL, you will be able to generate an RTL description if necessary.

Synopsys, +44 118 965 1157, www.synopsys.com.

-by Graham Prophet