Public Release of TLM-2.0 Reference Manual, Synthesis Subset Draft Document and Results of AMS Draft 1 Public Review Advance System-level Design Ecosystem

SAN FRANCISCO (at 2009 DAC) – July 27, 2009 – The Open SystemC Initiative (OSCI), an independent non-profit organization dedicated to support and advance SystemC™ as an industry-standard language for electronic system-level (ESL) design, today announced significant milestones that have been achieved by three of its working groups: the Transaction-level Modeling Working Group (TLM WG), the Synthesis WG and the Analog/Mixed-Signal (AMS) WG.



The result of intensive work for over the past year, the TLM WG has completed a TLM-2.0 Reference Manual for public release. The manual is a formal description of the TLM-2.0 APIs and semantics. It clarifies the original specification and incorporates minor changes for consistency and completeness and is accompanied by an update of the TLM library: release 2.0.1. Released in June of 2008, the much anticipated OSCI TLM-2.0 standard has been broadly adopted because it addresses real-world interoperability of transaction-level models from different suppliers without compromise to simulation speed. It provides an essential ESL framework for architecture analysis, software development, software performance analysis and hardware verification. Many companies across the ESL ecosystem already incorporate TLM-2.0 in their products and solutions.



“The TLM-2.0 Reference Manual demonstrates OSCI’s commitment to providing a robust and comprehensive foundation for transaction-level model interoperability and reuse,” said OSCI Chairman Ken Tallo. “This important TLM WG milestone; steady progress in the Analog/Mixed-Signal, Language and Synthesis WGs; and new activity within the Configuration, Control and Inspection WG are clear and positive indicators of OSCI’s resolve to advance SystemC standards to meet needs of the entire system-level design ecosystem.”



The Synthesis WG is in the final stages of releasing a synthesis subset draft to the public. The draft features several technical updates. Supported language constructs are now established and a chapter on processes, clocks, and resets has been added. The draft also includes a discussion on abstraction levels that puts the concepts of the synthesizable subset in the context of the abstraction levels defined for TLM.



OSCI’s AMS WG used several approaches to complete the public review of its AMS Draft 1 standard. It gathered comments via the group's website on www.systemc.org, and the first-ever global AMS teleconference forum for public review, facilitating direct communication with the worldwide SystemC community of users, tool developers and academia. As a result of this interchange, the WG is enhancing its documentation for clarity, and will update the AMS language reference manual. Next steps for the group include the development of a user’s guide and to promote the creation of implementations of the SystemC AMS extensions.



The TLM-2.0 Reference Manual and AMS Draft 1 standard are available for download now under open source license at no cost to users and suppliers. The synthesis subset draft document is it expected to be available by end of August. To download, visit http://www.systemc.org">www.systemc.org.



An update on OSCI activities will be featured today at the North American SystemC User’s Group (NASCUG) meeting co-located with the 2009 Design Automation Conference (DAC). The meeting will take place at the San Francisco Marriott, beginning at 1pm and will feature a first-ever SystemC Town Hall discussion. Chairs from OSCI technical workings groups will be on-hand to answer audience questions for a lively discussion. Users are invited to participate and help shape the evolution of SystemC. For more information: http://www.nascug.org/events/11th_agenda.html"> http://www.nascug.org/events/11th_agenda.html.



About SystemC and OSCI

The Open SystemC™ Initiative (OSCI) is an independent, not-for-profit association composed of a broad range of organizations dedicated to supporting and advancing SystemC as an open industry standard for system-level modeling, design and verification. SystemC is a language built in C++ that spans from concept to implementation in hardware and software. For further information about SystemC and OSCI visit http://www.systemc.org">www.systemc.org.



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