High level simulation and hardware description languages

Author(s):  
R. Cottrell
1995 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 333-340
Author(s):  
S. J. Sangwine

Experiences with high-level design and modelling of digital systems Design and modelling of digital systems has been taught at the University of Reading for six years, using Silvar-Lisco HELIX and lately IEEE Standard VHDL hardware description languages. Three exercises have been used throughout this time. These are: modelling of a multiplier-accumulator, design and modelling of a transversal filter, and specification-level modelling of a FIFO.


Author(s):  
Raghad Obeidat ◽  
Hussein Alzoubi

Curricula in computer engineering, computer science, and other related fields include several courses about hardware design. Examples of these courses are digital logic design, computer architecture, microprocessors, computer interfacing, hardware design, embedded systems, switching theorem, and others. In order for the students to realize the concepts taught in such courses, practical track should be reinforced along with the theoretical track. Many universities offer to their students labs in which they can practice hardware design. However, students need more than that: they need tools that enable them to design, model, simulate, synthesize, and implement hardware designs. Although high-level programming languages like Java and C++ could be an option, it might be a tedious task to use them for this mission. Fortunately, hardware-description languages (HDLs) have been specifically devised for this purpose. This paper shows some of the great features of HDLs and compare using them with using C++ for illustrating digital concepts through salient examples.


Author(s):  
Nejmeddine Alimi ◽  
Younes Lahbib ◽  
Mohsen Machhout ◽  
Rached Tourki

Cryptography and computational algebra designs are complex systems based on modular arithmetic and build on multi-level modules where bit-width is generally larger than 64-bit. Because of their particularity, such designs pose a real challenge for verification, in part because large-integer’s functions are not supported in actual hardware description languages (HDLs), therefore limiting the HDL testbench utility. In another hand, high-level verification approach proved its efficiency in the last decade over HDL testbench technique by raising the latter at a higher abstraction level. In this work, we propose a high-level platform to verify such designs, by leveraging the capabilities of a popular tool (Matlab/Simulink) to meet the requirements of a cycle accurate verification without bit-size restrictions and in multi-level inside the design architecture. The proposed high-level platform is augmented by an assertion-based verification to complete the verification coverage. The platform experimental results of the testcase provided good evidence of its performance and re-usability.


2010 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
SUNGWOO PARK ◽  
HYEONSEUNG IM

AbstractIn efforts to overcome the complexity of the syntax and the lack of formal semantics of conventional hardware description languages, a number of functional hardware description languages have been developed. Like conventional hardware description languages, however, functional hardware description languages eventually convert all source programs into netlists, which describe wire connections in hardware circuits at the lowest level and conceal all high-level descriptions written into source programs. We develop a calculus, called lλ (linear lambda), which may serve as an intermediate functional language just above netlists in the hierarchy of hardware description languages. In order to support higher-order functions, lλ uses a linear type system, which enforces the linear use of variables of function type. The translation of lλ into structural descriptions of hardware circuits is sound and complete in the sense that it maps expressions only to realizable hardware circuits, and that every realizable hardware circuit has a corresponding expression in lλ. To illustrate the use of lλ as a practical intermediate language for hardware description, we design a simple hardware description language that extends lλ with polymorphism, and use it to implement a fast Fourier transform circuit and a bitonic sorting network.


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