VLSI Circuit as Communicating Processes: A Universal Simulator

Abstract

A VLSI system is represented as a hierarchy of modules. These modules range from analog models of circuit elements to systems such as systolic arrays and tree machines. Though these elements are of drastically different natures, they share the property of being autonomous processes, each performing a sequence of events and communicating with one another. This metaphor has been developed as a formal model of computation; any computational system can be described in these terms. We describe a simulator which is built upon this metaphor. Central to the simulator is a fixed-point algorithm which finds the steady state of the system. Since in both theory and practice it is capable of handling all levels of design, we call it a universal simulator.

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