An Evolutionary Approach to the Use of PetriNet based Models : From Parallel Controllers toHW / SW Co -

The main purpose of this article is to present how Petri Nets (PNs) have been used for hardware design at our research laboratory. We describe the use of PN models to specify synchronous parallel controllers and how PN speciications can be extended to include the behavioural description of the data path, by using object-oriented concepts. Some hierarchical mechanisms which deal with the speciication of complex digital systems are highlighted. It is described a design ow that includes, among others, the automatic generation of VHDL code to synthesize the control unit of the system. The use of PNs as part of a multiple-view model within an object-oriented methodology for hardware/software codesign is debated. The EDgAR-2 platform is considered as the reconngurable target architecture for implementing the systems and its main characteristics are shown. Abstract The main purpose of this article is to present how Petri Nets (PNs) have been used for hardware design at our research laboratory. We describe the use of PN models to specify synchronous parallel controllers and how PN speciications can be extended to include the behavioural description of the data path, by using object-oriented concepts. Some hierarchical mechanisms which deal with the speciication of complex digital systems are highlighted. It is described a design ow that includes, among others, the automatic generation of VHDL code to synthesize the control unit of the system. The use of PNs as part of a multiple-view model within an object-oriented methodology for hardware/software codesign is debated. The EDgAR-2 platform is considered as the reconngurable target architecture for implementing the systems and its main characteristics are shown.