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Transaction-level modeling
Источник: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transaction-level_modeling
Transaction-level modeling
(TLM) is a high-level approach to modeling digital systems where
details of communication among modules are separated from the details
of the implementation of functional units or of the communication
architecture. Communication mechanisms such as busses or FIFOs are
modeled as channels, and are presented to modules using SystemC
interface classes. Transaction requests take place by calling interface
functions of these channel models, which encapsulate low-level details
of the information exchange. At the transaction level, the emphasis is
more on the functionality of the data transfers - what data are
transferred to and from what locations - and less on their actual
implementation, that is, on the actual protocol used for data transfer.
This approach makes it easier for the system-level designer to
experiment, for example, with different bus architectures (all
supporting a common abstract interface) without having to recode models
that interact with any of the buses, provided these models interact
with the bus though the common interface. (Quoted with permission from
[1]).
History
Roots of the term TLM, or "Where is the Level in TLM?": TLM was supposed to come out as TBM (= transaction-based modeling). In 2000, Thorsten Gr?tker, R&D Manager at Synopsys was preparing a presentation on the communication mechanism in what was to become the SystemC 2.0 standard. Gilles Baillieu, then a corporate application engineer at Synopsys, insisted that the new term had to contain "level", as in "register transfer level"
or "behavioral level". The fact that TLM does not denote a single level
of abstraction but rather a modeling technique didn't make him change
this mind. It had to be "level" in order to make it stick. So it became
"TLM", and it stuck.
Footnote: The use of "transaction-based" was quite normal at that
time. Examples include TestBuilder ("transaction-based verification")
or IKOS ("transaction-based interface").
References
T. Grotker, S. Liao, G. Martin, S. Swan, System Design with SystemC. Springer, 2002, Chapter 8., pp. 131. ISBN 1402070721
External links
SystemC.org - SystemC home page. ESCUG - Prof. Rosenstiel's European SystemC Users Group (ESCUG) webpage. NASCUG - North American SystemC User's Group. LASCUG - Latin American SystemC User's Group.
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