Abstract
A good specification and design of a hardware system should have some principal properties. The specification has to be correct, robust, expandable and reusable. There is a variety of different techniques and methods to solve these problems. This article gives an overview about existing specification languages and techniques which allow one to specify systems at a high level of abstraction. It analyses which possibilities, especially for hardware specification, the language concepts of SDL, Estelle, LOTOS, ML, HML, Z, CSP, OCCAM and some object-oriented extensions of VHDL offer. Emphasis is put on object-oriented methodologies and how they are already realized in these languages. The aim of the object orientation is to provide methods for easy reuse, good maintenance and robustness of specifications. References to existing approaches using these techniques in hardware specification and design systems are given. Several general problems of using some of these languages for hardware specification and design are mentioned. It is explained how specifications described in these languages can be used as a starting point for further design steps. In particular any existing links to the hardware description language VHDL for the synthesis process are clarified.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Girczyc, Emil; Carlson, Steve: Increasing Design Quality and Engineering Productivity through Design Reuse. Proceedings 30th. ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference 1993
Furber, Steve: Asynchronous Circuits for Low Power. handouts, tutorial EURO-DAC with EURO-VHDL, Grenoble 1994
CCITT Blue book Recommendation Z.100: Functional Specification and Description Language SDL, 1989
CCITT Revised Recomendation Z. 100 CCITT Specification and Description Language (SDL), 1992
LOTOS a Formal Description Technique Based on the Temporal Ordering of Observational Behaviour. ISO, IS 8807, 1989
International Standard, Estelle (Formal Description Technique Based on an Extended State Transition Model) ISO/DIS 9074, 1987
Hogrefe. D.: Estelle, LOTOS und SDL. Springer Verlag Berlin, 1989
Glunz, W.: Hardware-Entwurf auf abstrakten Ebenen unter Verwendung von Methoden aus dem Software-Entwurf. (in german) Dissertation, Fachbereich Mathematik/Informatik der Universität-Gesamthochschule Paderborn, 1994
Glunz, W.; Kruse, T.; Rossel, T.; Monjau, D.: Integrating SDL and VHDL for System-Level Hardware Design. Proceedings CHDL′93, Ottawa, Canada 1993
Glunz, W.; Venzl, G.: Hardware Design Using Case Tools. Proceedings of the IFIP,VLSI′91 Conference Edinburgh, 1991
Glunz, W.; Venzl, G: Using SDL for Hardware Design. in SDL′91 Evolving Methods; Proceedings of the Fifth SDL Forum Glasgow, North Holland, 1991
Lutter, B.; Glunz, W.; Rammig, F.J.: Using VHDL for Simulation of SDL Specifications. Proceedings of the European Design Automation Conference′92, 1992
Pulkkinen, O.; Kronlöf, K.: Integration of SDL and VHDLfor High-Level Digital Design. Proceedings of the European Design Automation Conference′92, 1992
Jerraya, A.A.; O’Brien, K.; Ben Ismail, T.: Linking System Design Tools and Hardware Design Tools. Proceedings CHDL′93, Ottawa, Canada 1993
Færgemand, O.; Olsen, A.: Introduction to SDL-92. Computer Networks and ISDN Systems 26 p 1143–1167, 1994
Milner, R.; Tofte, M.; Harper, R.: The Definition of Standard ML. The MIT Press, 1990
Harper, R.: Introduction to Standard ML. School of Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, 1990
Hopcroft, J.E.; Ulhnan, J.D.: Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation. Addison-Wesley, 1979
O’Leary, J.; Linderman, M.; Leeser, M.; Aagaard, M.: HML: A Hardware Description Language Based on Standard ML. Proceedings CHDL′93, Ottawa, Canada 1993
Brien, S.; Nicholls, J.: Z Base Standard Version 1.0, 1992
Spivey, J.M.: The Z Notation A Reference Manual. Prentice Hall, 1989
Potter, B.; Sinclair, J.; Till, D.: An Introduction to Formal Specification an Z. Prentice Hall, 1991
Hoare, C.A.R.: Communication Sequential Processes. in Hoare, C.A.R. Hoare; Jones, C.B. (eds): Essays in Computing Science. Prentice Hall, 1989
INMOS Ltd.: OCCAM Programming Manual, Prentice Hall International, 1984
Brunvand, E.: Translating Concurrent Programs into Delay-Insensitive Circuits. in International Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD), 1989
Marshall, R.M.: Automatic Generation of Controller Systems from Control Software. in International Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD), 1986
Glunz, W.; Pyttel, A.; Venzl, G.: System-Level Synthesis in Design. Michel, P.; Lauther, U.; Duzy, P. (eds.): The Synthesis Approach to Digital System. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1992
Zippelius, R.; Müller-Glaser, K.D.: An Object-Oriented Extension of VHDL. VHDL-Forum for CAD in Europe, Spring 92 Meeting, 1992
Dunlop, D.D.: Object-Oriented Extensions to VHDL. Proceedings of the VHDL International User’s Forum, 1994
Covnot, B.M.; Hurst, W.D.; Swamy, S.: OO-VHDL: An Object Oriented VHDL. Proceedings of the VHDL International User’s Forum, 1994
Willis, J.C.; Bailey, S.A.; Newshutz, R.: A Proposal for Minimally Extending VHDL to Achieve Data Encapsulation Late Binding and Multiple Inheritance
Mills, M.T., Lt. Col.: Proposed Object Oriented Programming (OOP) Enhancements to the Very High Speed Integrated Circuits (VHSIC) Hardware Description Language (VHDL). Final Report for 05/04/92-08/04/93 Solid State Electronics Directorate Wright Laboratory Air Force Materiel Command Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio 45433-7331
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22 WG9 N 193: Programming Language Ada, Language and Standard Libraries, Annotated Draft Version 4.0 IR-MA-1364-3, 1993
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1995 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Schumacher, G., Nebel, W. (1995). Survey on Languages for Object Oriented Hardware Design Methodologies. In: Bergé, JM., Levia, O., Rouillard, J. (eds) High-Level System Modeling. Current Issues in Electronic Modeling, vol 3. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2303-1_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2303-1_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-5973-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-2303-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive