Matisse is a design flow intended for developing embedded systems characterize dby tight inter action b etwe encontrol and data-flow behavior, intensive data storage and tr ansfer, dynamic creation of data, and stringent real-time requirements. Matisse bridges the gap from a system specification, using a cocurr ent obje ct-oriented language, to an optimize d embedded single-chip HW/SW implementation. Matisse supp orts stepwise system-level exploration and refinement, memory architecture exploration, and gradualincorporation of timing constr aints b efore going to tr aditional tools for HW synthesis, SW compilation, and HW/SW interprocessor communication synthesis. Application of Matisse on telecom protocol processing systems shows significant improvements in area usage and power c onsumption.

Taking into account RC effects in VLSI simulation and verification systems, without seriously degrading their efficiency, requires preliminary data reduction. A tool, DARSI (data reduction system for interconnects), that can handle both polysilicon and diffusion resistive effects is presented. It contains the reduction scheme described by S.-L. Su et al. (Proc. IEEE Conf. Computer-Aided Design, p.270-3, 1986), a novel line-based reduction method, a novel loop reduction scheme, and a technique for identifying important diffusion resistors. The number of parasitic elements is considerably reduced, while guaranteeing delay errors to be less than a few percent. DARSI is implemented in a general-purpose rule-based verification environment for VLSI and has a nearly linear complexity. Application to several practical designs is also discussed.>

A system is presented which automatically generates layout of bit-sliced data paths in high performance DSP circuits. The system consists of a linear placement tool, a track assignment tool and detailed layout tools. In this paper we will present algorithms for linear placement of modules and routing track assignment across the modules. By taking advantage of the inherent structure of the circuits an A* based linear placement algorithm has produced better results compared to a simulated annealing based approach.

This paper presents a new approach to module generation. It is based on the observation that a function, realized by a module instance (e.g. a 16-bit multiplier) when restricted to a sub-function, can be realized by a reduction of the instance to a sub-instance (e.g. a 8-bit multiplier). This reduction is performed automatically by REDUSA. It offers important advantages in both the construction and verification aspects of module generators.

This paper presents a new approach to module generation. It is based on the observation that a function, realized by a module instance (e.g. a 16-bit multiplier) when restricted to a sub-function, can be realized by a reduction of the instance to a sub-instance (e.g. a 8-bit multiplier). This reduction is performed automatically by REDUSA. It offers important advantages in both the construction and verification aspects of module generators.

An environment for the generation of modules is described. It includes tools for interactive design of parameterised procedures describing the structure as well as the topology. For the layout symbolic cells are used which are automatically fitted together as defined by the topology.