PDF File - Hardware Verification Group - Concordia University

Eventually, the software and hardware design will end by getting into a single flow. Optimistically,
in a few years, the difference, if it will exist, will be a matter of compiler
options ("-software" or "-hardware"). However, to get there, we need at first to define a
system level language.
2.2. Proposed Solutions
The usage of a system level language is a direct result of the way the SoC design process
works [31]. Following the software evolution, the most likely methodology would be to
push toward successive refinement, an extremely successful methodology in software
development. A possible solution is to define what are the basic requirements for a system
level language; intuitively, we would first spend a look to the way software design is actually
performed.
No doubts, a short-term solution will come from languages that "push up" from or extend
current HDL-based methodologies. We can not omit that languages like SuperLog [46]
hold great promise for the next three to four years basically because SuperLog does not
require a radical shift in methodologies and allows groups to retain legacy code. This
approach can be seen as a refinement of the existent languages. Some people define
SuperLog as “Verilog done right”.
The medium-range solutions will likely be C++-based languages that have hardware
design capabilities, we mention here SystemC [49] and Cynlib [10] as two promising languages.
The revolution can also come from the Java side.
Long-term language solutions will likely come from new languages developed just specifically
to work at the system level such as Rosetta [2] which promise to make true systemlevel
design a reality.
2.3. Case Study: UML as a Software System Level Languages
Software developers faced the problem of large yet complex projects long time before
their hardware counterparts. Dedicated system level languages have been introduced since
the last 80s. However, the most and widely used solution is the Unified Modeling Language
(UML) [8]. No one can deny that fact is that UML is becoming a lingua franca for
system level modeling. Nevertheless, an open question is whether UML is rich enough to
represent hardware adequately.
As defined, UML is a vendor and tool-dependent notation for specifying, visualizing, constructing
and documenting software systems. Originally UML was developed by Rational
Software Corp. and its partners and now under the auspices of the Object Management
Group (OMG) [8]. The first yet principle objective of UML was to let software developers
draw diagrams that can be, at least in theory, universally understood. At the time when
UML was born, it was quite early to think about the support of hardware systems. However,
the SoC facto made no choice for UML designers to rethink about their language if
they want to keep it as a "default" system level language.
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