A platform-based taxonomy for ESL design

A taxonomy for ESL tools and methodologies which combines UC Berkeley's platform-based design terminologies with Dan Gajski's Y-chart work, is presented. This approach shall help designers use tools more efficiently, clarify their flow's entry and exit points, and highlight areas in the design process that could benefit from additional tools and support packages. An effective way to integrate the existing designs into new ESL flows, is to start the description of the functionality from scratch, using tools in bin F. An alternative might be an effective encapsulation of the legacy part of the design so that the new part interacts clearly with the legacy part. Because legacy components typically support a specific application, mapping is often unnecessary, and functional or architectural cosimulation can validate a new design. Metabin FP at the system level is therefore, the appropriate flow model.