Introducing Dataflow in the VCC Discrete Event Environment
Bishnupriya Bhattacharya and Robert Shur, Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
bpriya@cadence.com

VCC is a relatively new block diagram tool from Cadence for system level design. The simulation engine in VCC is based on the discrete event (DE) model of computation, where a block is activated at run-time, as soon as it receives an event on any of its input ports. In this talk, we will describe a prototype system that introduces dataflow (DF) semantics within the VCC environment, with minimum modifications to the core simulator, and maintaining the existing DE block design interface, for a uniform look and feel. The difference lies in the activation semantics - a DE block is activated only when its firing rule is satisfied, i.e. all input ports have sufficient tokens (possibly multi-rate).

Our prototype supports a non-clustered flow (isolated DF blocks), and a clustered flow (a group of DF blocks designated as a cluster). In the non-clustered flow, dynamic dataflow (DDF) blocks are allowed, while only static dataflow (SDF) blocks can be clustered. Non-clustered DF blocks are scheduled dynamically, whereas the static nature of a DF cluster is exploited to generate a static schedule. The clustered flow results in a more efficient simulation, and also supports full debug features within the cluster at the level of the leaf DF blocks.

The main strength of VCC lies in its performance simulation capabilities, and our dataflow prototype is amenable to performance modeling at the granularity respectively, of a leaf DF block, and a DF cluster, in the two different flows.

In this talk, we will describe our dataflow methodology; compare with the previous SPW-import feature in VCC and with the mixed DE-DF environment in Ptolemy; and discuss future directions.