Teaching computer organization and architecture using SystemC

  • Authors:
  • Ed Harcourt

  • Affiliations:
  • St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

Hardware simulation is often used in courses that contain a hardware component. We describe and introduce SystemC, a C++ library for designing, simulating, and analyzing digital systems. We compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of SystemC to other technologies used in hardware courses such as breadboards and other simulation technologies including schematic capture and traditional hardware description languages Verilog and VHDL. We ascertained the strengths and weaknesses of using SystemC as a teaching tool by having a student use SystemC to design a subset of the MIPS microprocessor described in the popular textbook [6].