SystemC

On this page you will find a series of tutorials which introduce SystemC for FPGA design and verification.

SystemC is actually a set of classes and libraries which are built on top of the C++ programming language. We can download and install these libraries for free from the Accellera website.

As a result of this, the basic syntax of the SystemC syntax is taken directly from the C++ language.

However, in these tutorials we will only look at the SystemC extensions which we can use in FPGA design and verification.

Therefore, if you are not already familiar with the C++ language then it is a good idea to take a beginners C++ course before reading through these tutorials.

In addition to this, it is recommended that you also read the posts which introduce the FPGA development process first. These give an overview of all the stages required to design an FPGA. This information will give you some important basic background knowledge which will help with these tutorials.

How to Write a Basic SystemC Module

In the first post in this series we talk about how SystemC designs are structured and how this relates to the hardware being described.

An Introduction to SystemC Processes

In this post we talk about processes in SystemC and how we use them to model hardware or write test benches.

How to Write a Basic Test Bench Using SystemC

In this post we look at how we can write a basic test bench using SystemC. We start by looking at the architecture of a SystemC test bench before considering

An Introduction to Basic SystemC Data Types

In this post, we talk about the basic binary data types which are included in the SystemC libraries.

Numeric Data Types in SystemC

In this post we discuss the numeric data types which are defined in the SystemC libraries

An Introduction to SystemC Primitive Channels

In this post we talk about the basic types of primitive channels that we can use in SystemC

An Introduction to Hierarchical Channels in SystemC

In this post we talk about the hierarchical channels in SystemC

An Introduction to the SystemC Scheduler

In this post we talk about the SystemC scheduler in more detail.

An Introduction to SystemC Events

In this post we introduce the concept of events in SystemC