Accellera Systems Initiative advances the SystemC ecosystem with a new core language library

Updated proof of concept library brings modern C++ support and other new features to enable higher level, more efficient design, and validation of complex integrated circuits and systems-on-chips

Elk Grove, Calif., October 16, 2017 - Accellera Systems Initiative announces a new library release for the SystemC core language (SystemC 2.3.2, including TLM 2.0.4). Ratified as IEEE Std. 1666-2011 "Standard SystemC Language Reference Manual," SystemC is a high-level language used in the design and development of electronic and embedded systems. The SystemC 2.3.2 proof of concept library is an update to the standard that was released in 2011 which included transaction-level modeling. The new library is fully compatible with IEEE Std. 1666-2011 and is available at www.accellera.org.

"We would like to recognize the contributors of the SystemC Language and Transaction-Level Working Groups that made this new library possible. To ensure high quality, the release has been thoroughly reviewed and tested," said Philipp A. Hartmann, chair of the SystemC Language Working Group.

SystemC 2.3.2 is a maintenance release that incorporates over 150 individual contributions addressing issues and errata that have been reported during the past three years. The accompanying regression test suite covers bug fixes as well as additional features. Changes include:

• Initial support for modern C++ standards (C++11, C++14)
• An extended hierarchical name registry, enabling a seamless integration with the upcoming CCI configuration standard
• New common base class for TLM-2.0 sockets, additional optionally bound TLM-2.0 convenience sockets
• New conversion functions of time values from and to strings
• Tracing of time values and event notifications
• Reworked build system, supporting additional compilers and platforms (now including AArch64), as well as experimental support for the CMake build tools

The release also includes experimental features beyond the extensions included in 2.3.1 proposed by the Language Working Group that are not yet included in IEEE Std. 1666-2011. Most notably, the implementation includes extended support for synchronizing with external processes, enabling advanced coarse-grained parallel simulations. More information can be found in the companion release notes.

The notes and readme files have been updated to support installation on the latest operating systems and compilers. For the first time, the SystemC library now supports building a dynamic-link library (DLL) on Microsoft Windows platforms.

"SystemC 2.3.2 brings C++-based design and validation of complex embedded systems to the next level by enabling efficient use of modern C++ standards and development environments," said Philipp Hartmann. "This release paves the way for enabling even more advanced modeling capabilities both in SystemC-based standards currently being developed by Accellera as well as in user-specific methodology libraries based on C++11/14."

The IEEE Std. 1666-2011 standard may be obtained at no charge via the Accellera Systems Initiative-sponsored IEEE Get Program. The newly released version 2.3.2 of the open source proof-of-concept SystemC library and the corresponding regression suite is available under the Apache 2.0 License and may be downloaded free of charge on the Accellera website.

About the Accellera SystemC Language Working Group

Accellera's SystemC Language Working Group (SystemC LWG) and SystemC Transaction-Level Modeling Working Group (SystemC TLMWG) are two of the 18 Accellera Working Groups that produce effective and efficient Electronic Design Automation (EDA) and Intellectual Property (IP) standards for today's advanced IC designs and embedded systems. The SystemC LWG is responsible for the definition and development of the SystemC and TLM core languages, the foundation on which all other SystemC libraries and functionality are built. Participants of both working groups include member companies and industry contributors. Technical contributors typically have many years of practical experience with IC and system design as well as developing and using EDA tools. For more information about the SystemC LWG, please click here.

About Accellera Systems Initiative
Accellera Systems Initiative is an independent, not-for profit organization dedicated to create, support, promote and advance system-level design, modeling and verification standards for use by the worldwide electronics industry. The organization accelerates standards development and, as part of its ongoing partnership with the IEEE, its standards are contributed to the IEEE Standards Association for formal standardization and ongoing change control. For more information, please visit www.accellera.org. Find out more about membership. Follow @accellera on Twitter or to comment, please use #accellera. Accellera Global Sponsors are: Cadence; Mentor, A Siemens Business; and Synopsys.