Report Number: CSL-TR-96-690
Institution: Stanford University, Computer Systems Laboratory
Title: Analysis and Synthesis of Concurrent Digital Systems Using Control-Flow Expressions
Author: Coelho, Claudionor Jose Nunes Jr.
Date: March 1996
Abstract: We present in this thesis a modeling style and control synthesis technique for system-level specifications that are better described as a set of concurrent descriptions, their synchronizations and complex constraints. For these types of specifications, conventional synthesis tools will not be able to enforce design constraints because these tools are targeted to sequential components with simple design constraints. In order to generate controllers satisfying the constraints of system-level specifications, we propose a synthesis tool called Thalia that considers the degrees of freedom introduced by the concurrent models and by the system's environment. The synthesis procedure will be subdivided into the following steps: We first model the specification in an algebraic formalism called control-flow expressions, that considers most of the language constructs used to model systems reacting to their environment, i.e. sequential, alternative, concurrent, iterative, and exception handling behaviors. Such constructs are found in languages such as C, Verilog HDL, VHDL, Esterel and StateCharts. Then, we convert this model and a suitable representation for the environment into a finite-state machine, where the system is analyzed, and design constraints such as timing, resource and synchronization are incorporated. In order to generate the control-units for the design, we present two scheduling procedures. The first procedure, called static scheduling, attempts to find fixed schedules for operations satisfying system-level constraints. The second procedure, called dynamic scheduling, attempts to synchronize concurrent parts of a circuit description by dynamically selecting schedules according to a global view of the system.
http://i.stanford.edu/pub/cstr/reports/csl/tr/96/690/CSL-TR-96-690.pdf