The Kiel Esterel Processor - A Semi-Custom, Configurable Reactive Processor

The synchronous language Esterel is an established language for developing reactive systems. It gives an abstract, well-defined and executable description of the application, and can be synthesized into hardware and software. Typically, an Esterel program is first translated into other, lower-level languages (such as VHDL or C), and then compiled further. However, there is also the alternative of executing Esterel-like instructions directly. For example, in the REFLIX and RePIC projects, Roop et al. have augmented traditional processors with custom hardware to execute Esterel instructions. This patch strategy is a convenient approach, but has some shortages. We present the Kiel Esterel Processor (KEP), a semi-custom, configurable reactive processor for the direct execution of Esterel programs. It consists of a reactive core and scalable peripheral elements. KEP supports standard Esterel statements directly, except (so far) for the concurrency operator. Valued signals and counter functi...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: DAGSTUHL
• Authors: Xin Li, Reinhard von Hanxleden
• Keywords: DAGSTUHL 2004, DAGSTUHL 2007, Esterel, Esterel Programs, Esterel Statements