Bluespec: a Hardware Description Language for High-Level Design

April 14, 2011
2:50 pm - 4:00 pm
Halligan 111
Speaker: Joe Stoy, Bluespec, Inc
Host: Norman Ramsey

Abstract

Bluespec SystemVerilog (BSV) is a fully synthesizable high-level hardware description language. Its foundations are in atomic transition systems and functional programming languages. It is an effective tool for hardware design, architectural exploration, high-level modelling,.and testing by emulation. We shall illustrate its flavour by examples, and compare it with other "high-level synthesis" approaches, such as those based on C, C++ and SystemC. We shall give brief accounts of some customer experiences with BSV.

Joe Stoy was for many years on the Faculty at Oxford University in England, and a Fellow of Balliol. He taught Computer Science, and worked mainly on formal semantics and the theory of programming languages. He has been working on the Bluespec language since its inception, first at Sandburst Corp, for which he left Oxford in 2001, and then as a Founder of Bluespec Inc when it separated from Sandburst in 2003.