Hostname: page-component-77c78cf97d-9lb97 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-04-24T11:43:45.999Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A calculus for hardware description*

Part of: JFP Research Articles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 November 2010

SUNGWOO PARK  and
HYEONSEUNG IM
SUNGWOO PARK
Affiliation:
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea (e-mail: gla@postech.ac.kr, genilhs@postech.ac.kr)
HYEONSEUNG IM
Affiliation:
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea (e-mail: gla@postech.ac.kr, genilhs@postech.ac.kr)
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the 'Save PDF' action button.

In efforts to overcome the complexity of the syntax and the lack of formal semantics of conventional hardware description languages, a number of functional hardware description languages have been developed. Like conventional hardware description languages, however, functional hardware description languages eventually convert all source programs into netlists, which describe wire connections in hardware circuits at the lowest level and conceal all high-level descriptions written into source programs. We develop a calculus, called lλ (linear lambda), which may serve as an intermediate functional language just above netlists in the hierarchy of hardware description languages. In order to support higher-order functions, lλ uses a linear type system, which enforces the linear use of variables of function type. The translation of lλ into structural descriptions of hardware circuits is sound and complete in the sense that it maps expressions only to realizable hardware circuits, and that every realizable hardware circuit has a corresponding expression in lλ. To illustrate the use of lλ as a practical intermediate language for hardware description, we design a simple hardware description language that extends lλ with polymorphism, and use it to implement a fast Fourier transform circuit and a bitonic sorting network.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Functional Programming , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , January 2011 , pp. 21 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

References

Axelsson, E., Claessen, K. & Sheeran, M. (2005) Wired: Wire-aware circuit design. In Proceedings of Conference on Correct Hardware Design and Verification Methods (CHARME). Springer-Verlag, pp. 5–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bjesse, P., Claessen, K., Sheeran, M. & Singh, S. (1998) Lava: Hardware design in Haskell. In Proceedings of the Third ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming. ACM Press, pp. 174–184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boute, R. T. (1984) Functional languages and their application to the description of digital systems. Journal A, 25 (1), 27–33.Google Scholar
Cardelli, L. & Plotkin, G. (1981) An algebraic approach to VLSI design. In Proceedings of the VLSI 81 International Conference, pp. 173–182.Google Scholar
Claessen, K. & Sands, D. (1999) Observable sharing for functional circuit description. In ASIAN '99: Proceedings of the 5th Asian Computing Science Conference on Advances in Computing Science. Springer-Verlag, pp. 62–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghica, D. R. (2007) Geometry of synthesis: A structured approach to VLSI design. In Proceedings of the 34th Annual ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages. ACM Press, pp. 363–375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grundy, J., Melham, T. & O'Leary, J. (2006) A reflective functional language for hardware design and theorem proving, J. Funct. Program., 16 (2), 157–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, S. D. (1984) Applicative programming and digital design. In Proceedings of the 11th ACM SIGACT-SIGPLAN Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages. ACM Press, pp. 218–227.Google Scholar
Jones, G. & Sheeran, M. (1990) Circuit design in Ruby, Formal Methods VLSI Des., 13–70.Google Scholar
Li, Y. & Leeser, M. (2000) HML, a novel hardware description language and its translation to VHDL, IEEE Trans. Very Large Scale Integr. (VLSI) Syst., 8 (1), 1–8.Google Scholar
Matthews, J., Cook, B. & Launchbury, J. (1998) Microprocessor specification in Hawk. In Proceedings of the 1998 International Conference on Computer Languages. IEEE, p. 90.Google Scholar
Meshkinpour, F. & Ercegovac, M. D. (1985) A functional language for description and design of digital systems: Sequential constructs. In Proceedings of the 22nd ACM/IEEE Conference on Design Automation. ACM Press, pp. 238–244.Google Scholar
Mycroft, A. & Sharp, R. (2000) A statically allocated parallel functional language. In Proceedings of the 27th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming (ICALP 2000). Springer-Verlag, pp. 37–48.Google Scholar
O'Donnell, J. J. (1995) From transistors to computer architecture: Teaching functional circuit specification in Hydra. In Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Functional Programming Languages in Education. Springer-Verlag, pp. 195–214.Google Scholar
O'Donnell, J. T. (1993) Generating netlists from executable circuit specifications. In Proceedings of the 1992 Glasgow Workshop on Functional Programming. Springer-Verlag, pp. 178–194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Hearn, P. (2003) On bunched typing. J. Funct. Program., 13 (4), 747–796.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Park, S., Kim, J. & Im, H. (2008) Functional netlists. In Proceedings of the 13th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming. ACM Press, pp. 353–365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharp, R. & Rasmussen, O. (1995) Using a language of functions and relations for VLSI specification. In Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Functional Programming Languages and Computer Architecture. ACM Press, pp. 45–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sheeran, M. (1984) muFP, a language for VLSI design. In Proceedings of the 1984 ACM Symposium on LISP and Functional Programming. ACM Press, pp. 104–112.Google Scholar
Sheeran, M. (2005) Hardware design and functional programming: A perfect match. J. Universal Comput. Sci., 11 (7), 1135–1158.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Discussions

No Discussions have been published for this article.