Grammar-based hardware synthesis from port-size independent specifications

A protocol defines how systems communicate, There are two ways of specifyin g the protocol, the language of communication, One way is to specify the au tomaton that recognizes the language, and this is the approach taken by SDL , etc. The other more abstract way is to specify the grammar of the languag e and let a tool synthesize the automaton, Directly specifying the automato n makes the specification implementation dependent in two ways: the time be havior is specified in terms of states, and the width of the inputs and out puts is fixed, By specifying the grammar, the specification is potentially independent of both these implementation details and allows design space ex ploration in these dimensions. This paper presents a grammar-based language , called ProGram, that supports a port-size independent specifications meth odology and its application to parts of the Operation and Maintenance proto col, a typical application from the ATM world. The methodology has also bee n applied to another test set of example designs and compared to standard R TL synthesis and HLS in order to evaluate the quality of the produced desig ns.