A Study of Architecture Description Languages from a Model-based Perspective

Abstract— Owing to the recent trend of using applicationspecific instruction-set processors (ASIP), many Architecture Description Languages (ADLs) have been created. They specify architectures or microarchitectures of processors, and automate tasks including circuit implementation, simulation, retargetable compilation and formal verification. Despite the large amount of effort dedicated to the field in the past two decades, we see no sign of convergence in it. In other words, the existing research results are barely reused as the foundation of new research projects. This situation makes it hard for new researchers to enter the field. To nurture a continuous growth of the field, this paper advocates two moves – the creation of formal foundations of ADLs and the adoption of the open-source development model. We argue that for an ADL to be capable of rigorously specifying a processor, it must be based on a solid foundation which we call the architecture model. The existing ADLs f...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: MTV
• Authors: Wei Qin, Sharad Malik
• Keywords: Architecture Description Language, Architecture Models, Formal Verification, Hardware, MTV 2005