Learning SystemC

Learn basics of SystemC

SystemC Tutorials and References

• Wikipedia
• Tutorial
• Doulos SystemC tutorial
• Counter with Testbench
• Asic World tutorial
• Getting Started
• Video tutorials
• Portuguese presentation

Some other references

• Cmake
• Using Cmake libraries
• Cmake third party libraries
• Typical Linux CMake
• Google Test I
• Google Test II
• Installing Jenkins
• Jenkins long video tutorial
• Another Jenkins Tutorial
• Building C++ Tensorflow API
• Catch framework and Jenkins
• CMake, Google test and Jenkins
• Jenkins start after github commit

First things

• It's not a language it's a C++ library
• Attempt to make HW/SW/Algo engineers to use the same language (C++)
• Not supported by much FPGA vendors

Hello World

// All systemc modules should include systemc.h header file
#include "systemc.h"
// Hello_world is module name
SC_MODULE (hello_world) {
  SC_CTOR (hello_world) {
    // Nothing in constructor 
  }
  void say_hello() {
    //Print "Hello World" to the console.
    cout << "Hello World.\n";
  }
};

// sc_main in top level function like in C++ main
int sc_main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
  hello_world hello("HELLO");
  // Print the hello world
  hello.say_hello();
  return(0);
}

Combinational Circuit

#include "systemc.h"
SC_MODULE (half_add) {
  // Input and Output ports
  sc_out<sc_logic> s,c;
  sc_in<sc_logic> a,b;
  
  // Pure C++ coder here (For synthesis depends on HLS power...)
  void compute(){
    s = a ^ b; // a XOR b
    c = a & b; // a AND b
  }
  
  SC_CTOR (half_add) {
    // Kind of always_comb block (Sensitive to a and b)
    SC_METHOD(compute);
    sensitive << a << b;
  }  
};

Compiling (by hand)

g++ adder.cpp -I/systemc-2.3.2/include -L/systemc-2.3.2/lib-linux64 -lsystemc -o adder
g++ test_adder.cpp -I/systemc-2.3.2/include -L/systemc-2.3.2/lib-linux64 -lsystemc -lgtest -lgtest_main -lpthread -o test_adder 

Compiling with CMake

mkdir build; cd build
cmake ..
make