Why this Book
The first question any reader should ask is “Why this book?” We decided
to write this book after learning SystemC and after using minimal documents
to help us through the quest of becoming comfortable with the language’s
finer points. After teaching several SystemC classes, we were even more
convinced that an introductory book focused on the SystemC language was
needed. We decided to contribute such a book.
This book is about SystemC. It focuses on enabling the reader to master
the language. The reader will be introduced to the syntax and structure of the
language, and the reader will also learn about the features and usage of
SystemC that makes it a tool to shorten the development cycle of large
system designs.
We allude to system design techniques and methods by way of examples
throughout the book. Several books that discuss system-level design
methodology are available, and we believe that SystemC is ideally suited to
implement many of these methods. After reading this resource, the reader
should not only be adept at using SystemC constructs efficiently, but also
have an appreciation of how the constructs work together and how they can
be used to create high performance simulation models.
We believe there is enough information to convey about the SystemC
language to justify this stand-alone book. We hope you agree. We also
believe that there is enough material for a second book that focuses on using
SystemC to implement these system-level design methods. With readerencouragement, the authors hope to start on a second book that delves
deeper into the application of the language (after recovering from the writing
of this book).
Prerequisites for this Book
As with every technical book, the authors must write the content
assuming a basic level of understanding; this assumption avoids repeating
most of an engineering undergraduate curriculum. For this book, we
assumed that the reader has a working knowledge of C++ and minimal
knowledge of hardware design.
For C++ skills, we do not assume that the reader is a “wizard”. Instead,
we assumed that you have a good knowledge of the syntax, the objectoriented
features, and the methods of using C++. The authors have found
that this level of C++ knowledge is universal to current or recent graduates
with a computer science or engineering degree from a four-year university.
Interestingly, the authors have also found that this level of knowledge is
lacking for most ASIC designers with 10 or more years of experience. For
those readers, assimilating this content will be quite a challenge but not an
impossible one.
For readers without any understanding of C++ or for those who may be
rusty, we recommend finding a good C++ class at a community college or
taking advantage of many of the online tutorials. For a list of sources, see
Chapter 15. We find (from our own experience) that those who have learned
several procedural languages (like FORTRAN or PL/I) greatly
underestimate the difficulty of learning a modern object-oriented language.
To understand the examples completely, the reader will need minimal
understanding of digital electronics.