A Review of the Different Levels of Abstraction for Systems-on-Chip (SoC)

Abstract

Simulating systems on a chip (SoC) even before starting its productivity makes it possible to validate the correct functioning of the systems, also avoiding the manufacture of defective chips. However, low-level design and system complexity makes verification and simulation more complicated and time consuming. The classification of the different levels of abstraction from lowest to highest generally depends on the estimation accuracy of the system performance and the speed of simulation. The RTL (Register Transfer Level) abstraction level allows efficient description at gate level with good precision. Therefore, RTL program are slowly simulated. Simulation speed usually depends on the size of the platform used, which is not the case for transaction level modeling (TLM) to achieve simulation speed based on the exchange of transactions between system modules. This work aims to give a detailed description of the different levels of abstraction with the main advantages, and disadvantages on the performances estimation side such as, energy consumption, precision, and speed. Furthermore, an overview of the most adequate memory architectures and interconnection networks, to aim the most suitable virtual platforms of simulation for SoC.