Recent research from MIT on a Streamlining Chip Design was in the news today. The report described work was done by Nyrav Dave PhD and Myron King to create a new programming language, BlueSpec that can convert specifications into hardware chip design (Verilog) or compile it into software programming (C++).
BlueSpec designers can tag (annotate) system modules to be hardware or software. The intent of the project is to make it easier to decide what is done in hardware versus software. By specifying this decision using a language attribute, it should make architectural hardware-software tradeoffs much easier to do and as a result, delay that decision until much later in the development cycle.
Hardware-software tradeoffs
Making good hardware-software tradeoffs are especially important in mobile handsets where power efficiency and system performance requirements often clash. It’s not that unusual in these systems that functionality is changed from hardware to software implementations or vice versa.
The problem is that the two different implementations (hardware or software) use different design languages and would typically require a complete re-coding effort to change, delaying system deployment significantly. Which makes such decisions all the more important to get right early on in system architecture.
In contrast, with BlueSpec, all it would take is a different tag to have the language translate the module into Verilog (chip design language) or C++ (software code).
Better systems through easier hardware design
There is a long running debate around commodity hardware versus special purpose hardware designed systems in storage systems (see Commodity Hardware Always Loses and Commodity Hardware Debate Heats-up Again). We believe that there will continuing place for special purpose built hardware in storage. Also, I would go on to say this is likely the case in networking, server systems as well as telecommunications handsets/back-office equipment.
The team at MIT specifically created their language to help create more efficient mobile phone hand sets. But from my perspective it has an equally valid part to play in storage and other systems.
Hardware and software design, more similar than different
Nowadays, hardware and software designers are all just coders using different languages.
Yes hardware engineers have more design constraints and have to deal with the real, physical world of electronics. But what they deal with most, is a hardware design language and design verification tools tailored for their electronic design environment.
Doing hardware design is not that much different from software developers coding in a specific language like C++ or Java. Software coders must also be able to understand their framework/virtual machine/OS environment their code operates in to produce something that works. Perhaps, design verification tools don’t work or even exist in software as much as they should but that is more a subject for research than a distinction between the two types of designers.
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Whether BlueSpec is the final answer or not isn’t as interesting as the fact that it has taken a first step to unify system design. Being able to decide much later in the process whether to make a module hardware or software will benefit all system designers and should get products out with less delay. But getting hardware designers and software coders talking more, using the same language to express their designs can’t help but result in better/tighter integrated designs which end up benefiting the world.
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