Design Abstraction
7 posts
Getting Started with Executable Specs
Hardware engineers spend their lives working with specifications, both natual language ("paper") and executable. We've been looking at characterizing the interfaces and internal implementation of executable specifications -- models. But, enough theory. Let's …
Relating Hardware Model Abstractions
The most difficult transition in hardware modeling is the transition from natural-language to executable specification. It is during this transition that the ambiguities inherent in natural-language descriptions are resolved. Maximizing value from a multi-abst…
Shifting Left with Hardware Model Abstractions
"Shift-Left" is a strategy to reorganize processes to enable more parallelism by adjusting dependencies. Hardware model abstractions provide a key tool to shifting tasks left in the silicon design process.
The Best of a Language and a Class Library
In hardware design and verification, we're used to working with domain-specific languages (DSLs), such as SystemVerilog, VHDL, and PSS, as well as class libraries, such as UVM, SystemC, and CHISEL. We use these DSLs and class libraries to capture key semantic…
Zuspec: Pythonic Model-Driven Hardware Development
Designing and implementing hardware is challenging, and is getting more difficult each year as systems become more complex. Design and verification teams are looking to boost productivity as a way to keep pace, while also looking for ways to provide models …
Embedded Languages: The Space Between Language and API
[](/legacy-img/splash-3.png) We're all familiar with general-purpose programming language for capturing general algorithms, but there are also a sizeable group of domain-specific languages that exist to efficiently capture reasoning in a specific domain -- …
Designing Standard-protocol Interfaces with Chisel Bundles
[](/legacy-img/plugboard2.jpg) Standard interfaces are all around us, and enhance interoperability between devices created by different organizations. While some standard interfaces are quite niche in nature, others, like the unbiquitous phono jack, have …