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SystemRDL Working Group

Charter

SystemRDL is designed to increase productivity, quality, and reuse during the design and development of complex digital systems. It can be used to share IP within and between groups, companies, and consortiums. This is accomplished by specifying a single source for the register description from which all views can be automatically generated, which ensures consistency between multiple views. A view is any output generated from the SystemRDL description, e.g., RTL code or documentation.

Chair: Miles McCoo, Intel

Scope

SystemRDL is a language for the design and delivery of intellectual property (IP) products used in designs. SystemRDL semantics supports the entire life-cycle of registers from specification, model generation, and design verification to maintenance and documentation. Registers are not just limited to traditional configuration registers, but can also refer to register arrays and memories.

The intent of this standard is to define SystemRDL accurately. Its primary audience are implementers of tools supporting the language and users of the language. The focus is on defining the valid language constructs, their meanings and implications for the hardware and software that is specified or configured, how compliant tools are required to behave, and how to use the language.

The SystemRDL semantics support the entire life-cycle of registers from specification, model generation, and design verification to maintenance and documentation. Registers are not just limited to traditional configuration registers, but can also refer to register arrays and memories. The SystemRDL language has been designed to increase productivity, quality, and reuse during the design and development of complex digital systems. It can and has been used to share IP within and between groups, companies, and consortiums.

This is accomplished by specifying a single source for the register description from which all views, software, hardware and documentation, can be automatically generated, which ensures consistency between multiple views. A view is any output generated from the SystemRDL description, e.g., RTL code or documentation. These views include the production of IP-XACT descriptions. SystemRDL is used by many teams to tersely capture a human readable and writable description from which the rest of the deliverables are produced.

Background

In May 2009, The SPIRIT Consortium announced the release of the SystemRDL specification. SystemRDL is a language for the design and delivery of registers to be used in IP blocks within electronic designs. The SystemRDL 1.0 Standard was transferred to Accellera upon the merger of The SPIRIT Consortium with Accellera Organization in 2010.

Shortly after Accellera merged with the Open SystemC Initiative (OSCI) in late 2011 to become Accellera Systems Initiative, the board of directors formed a new working group to focus on the next revision of SystemRDL. The new SystemRDL Working Group commenced work in the Fall of 2012 and is actively seeking members.

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