VHDL-based behavioral synthesis: can it pay off for telecom ASICs ?

Abstract

VHDL-based behavioral synthesis is appearing on the market but it still has to prove that it can have a significant impact. In the past, most applications for behavioral synthesis came from the DSP area and from the academic world. In contrast, this paper describes the results of an investigation we carried out on recent designs of Alcatel-Bell, leading to a more detailed study of 5 industrial telecom non-DSP circuits, that were suitable for behavioral synthesis.Our conclusion is that there is distinctly a market potential. However, we experienced that efficient use for telecom non-DSP circuits requires functionality that goes beyond simply generating an RTL-synthesizable description. This functionality is also discussed.

On the use of VHDL-based behavioral synthesis for telecom ASIC design

“…More specifically we will discuss the following questions: Our initial impressions on VHDL-based behavioral synthesis for telecom ASIC design have been reported in [9]. These impressions have been consolidated over the past months, and are described in this paper.…”