Several tools are already available, which take such metamodels for their configuration. Some of those tool suites, such as Accelerated Technology's Bridgepoint and ARTiSAN Software's Real-Time Studio, also support customizable code generation.
All in all, we see an emerging interest in UML’s application for SoC specification and analysis. In fact, several significant and ongoing efforts are focused on customizing UML toward SoC design. With the emergence of methodologies and the availability of a first set of dedicated tools, UML has great potential as a complement to current C++-based languages for SoC design. We also feel that SysML offers strong opportunities as a specification language beyond transaction-level and electronic system-level modeling.
An additional potential lies in UML’s application for architectural, component, and interface description. Intellectual property (IP) integration and packaging, such as that being proposed by the SPIRIT Consortium [6], can become easier by inheriting some of UML’s advanced object-oriented concepts. To this end, we realize that the current UML standard together with SysML is a complex framework of highly intertwined concepts. As a result, we definitely see a clear need for education before the SoC designer can benefit from UML and its rich set of concepts.
References:
[1] L. Lavagno and W. Mueller. UML for SoC Design Workshop at DAC’05, Anaheim, CA, USA, June 2005, http://www.c-lab.de/uml-soc
[2] G. Martin and W. Mueller. UML for SoC Design Workshop at DAC’04, San Diego, CA, USA, June 2004.
[3] G. Martin and W. Mueller (eds.). UML for SoC Design, Springer, June 2005.
[4] OMG. UML Extension Profile for SoC. ptc/06-04-18, April 2006.
[5] SysML Merge Team. Systems Modeling Language Specification Version 1.0 Draft. OMG document ad/2006-03-01. March 2006.
[6] Spirit Consortium, http://www.spiritconsortium.org.
Luciano Lavagno , a research scientist at Cadence Berkeley Labs, has worked on several projects in the system-level and digital implementation spaces.
Wolfgang Mueller heads the advanced design technologies group at C-LAB, a joint R&D institute of Paderborn University and Siemens.
Note: The third annual UML-SoC’06 Workshop will be held during the 43rd Design Automation Conference (DAC) Sunday, July 23, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. For more information regarding registration and the complete program, visit the DAC website at www.dac.com or the UML workshop website at www.c-lab.de/uml-soc/ .