Supervision : François PÊCHEUX

Co-supervision : LOUËRAT Marie-Minerve

Principles and Implementation of a Generic Synchronization Interface between SystemC AMS Models of Computation for the Virtual Prototyping of Multi-Disciplinary Systems

The design of embedded systems is currently an increasingly complex problem. These systems tend to become heterogeneous in the sense that they require the integration of components described by means of different physical/engineering disciplines, for example, electrical, optical, thermal, mechanical, chemical, or biological. Besides, these disciplines can be described under different time domains, for example, Discrete Event (DE), Discrete Time( DT), or Continuous Time (CT). To address this problem, designers require modeling and simulation tools to describe the system's components under different time domains and synchronize them in the same simulation environment.
We explore the possibilities of modeling, simulating and synchronizing multi-disciplinary systems in the same environment, using as reference the SystemC Analog/Mixed-Signal (AMS) simulation standard. We analyze the method introduced in SystemC AMS for synchronizing the DE and DT domains, and we identify its drawbacks. Besides, we introduce a new formalization of the synchronization problem, which is used to detect issues in a model before simulation.
We propose a simulator prototype called SystemC Multi-Disciplinary Virtual Prototyping (MDVP), which is implemented as an extension of SystemC. It allows the modeling, and the generic hierarchical elaboration and simulation of multi-disciplinary systems, by means of different Models of Computation (MoCs). To build the MDVP simulator, we introduce a synchronization principle to handle interactions between MoCs.
In addition, we introduce a methodology to add, in the simulator prototype, MoCs described under different time domains. We apply this methodology to add a Timed Data Flow MoC in SystemC MDVP. This MoC implements the DT semantics introduced by the SystemC AMS standard, and is based on the synchronization principle between the DE and DT domains.
Using the TDF MoC, we implement and simulate a case study of a vibration sensor model and its digital front end circuit. This case study includes a feedback loop and several interactions between the DE and DT domains.

2013-2020 Publications

• 2020
  • F. Pêcheux, L. Andrade Porras, M.‑M. Louërat, I. Bournias, R. Chotin, D. Genius : “Virtual Prototyping of Open Source Heterogeneous Systems with an Open Source Framework Featuring SystemC MDVP Extensions”, 2020 Forum for Specification and Design Languages (FDL), Kiel, Germany, pp. 1-8, (IEEE) (2020)
• 2016
  • L. Andrade : “Principles and Implementation of a Generic Synchronization Interface between SystemC AMS Models of Computation for the Virtual Prototyping of Multi-Disciplinary Systems ”, thesis, phd defence 01/12/2016, supervision Pêcheux, François, co-supervision : Louërat, Marie-Minerve (2016)
• 2015
  • C. Ben Aoun, L. Andrade Porras, T. Maehne, F. Pêcheux, M.‑M. Louërat, A. Vachoux : “Pre-Simulation Elaboration of Heterogeneous Systems: The SystemC Multi-Disciplinary Virtual Prototyping Approach”, International Conference on Embedded Computer Systems: Architectures, Modelling and Simulation (SAMOS XV), Samos, Greece, pp. 278-285 (2015)
  • L. Andrade Porras, T. Maehne, A. Vachoux, C. Ben Aoun, F. Pêcheux, M.‑M. Louërat : “Pre-Simulation Symbolic Analysis of Synchronization Issues between Discrete Event and Timed Data Flow Models of Computation”, The 2015 Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition, DATE 2015, Grenoble, France, pp. 1671-1676 (2015)
  • L. Andrade Porras, C. Ben Aoun, B. Vernay, T. Maehne, F. Pêcheux, M.‑M. Louërat : “Understanding the Heterogeneous Hardware: Do not forget the interconnection!”, 2^nd Workshop Design Automation for Understanding Hardware Designs (DUHDe), Grenoble, France (2015)
• 2014
  • T. Maehne, Zh. Wang, L. Andrade Porras, B. Vernay, C. Ben Aoun, J.‑P. Chaput, M.‑M. Louërat, F. Pêcheux, A. Krust, G. Schroepfer, M. Barnasconi, K. Einwich, F. Cenni, O. Guillaume : “UVM-SystemC-AMS based Framework for the Correct by Construction Design of MEMS in their Real Heterogeneous Application Context,”, IEEE International Conference on Electronics, Circuits, and Systems (ICECS), Marseille, France, pp. 862-865 (2014)
• 2013
  • L. Andrade Porras, T. Maehne, M.‑M. Louërat, F. Pêcheux : “Time Step Control and Threshold Crossing Detection in SystemC AMS 2.0”, Actes du huitième colloque du GDR SOC-SIP du CNRS, Lyon, France, pp. 3 (2013)