On Mixed Abstraction, Languages, and Simulation Approach to Refinement with SystemC AMS

Abstract

Executable specifications and simulations are cornerstone to system design flows. Complex-mixed-signal embedded systems can be specified with SystemC AMS which supports abstraction and extensible models of computation. The language contains semantics for module connections and synchronization required in analog and digital interaction. Through the synchronization layer, user defined models of computation, solvers and simulators can be unified in the SystemC AMS simulator for achieving low-level abstraction and model refinement. These improvements assist in amplifying model aspects and their contribution to the overall system behavior. This work presents cosimulating refined models with timed data flow paradigm of SystemC AMS. The methodology uses C-based interaction between simulators. An RTL model of data encryption standard is demonstrated as an example. The methodology is flexible and can be applied in early design decision tradeoff, architecture experimentation, and particularly for model refinement and critical behavior analysis.