Bluespec, Inc. is a semiconductor tool design company co-founded by Professor
Arvind
Arvind (from sa, अरविन्द ') is a common Indian given name, Indian masculine name meaning Nelumbo nucifera, lotus. The name is of Hindu origin. Its variants include Aravind, Aravinda, Aravindan, and Aurobindo ().
Meaning
' means ...
of
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the mo ...
in June 2003. Arvind had previously founded
Sandburst in 2000, which specialized in producing chips for
10G-bit Ethernet routers; for this task,
Bluespec has two product lines. Primarily for
ASIC
An application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC ) is an integrated circuit (IC) chip customized for a particular use, rather than intended for general-purpose use, such as a chip designed to run in a digital voice recorder or a high-efficien ...
and
FPGA
A field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is an integrated circuit designed to be configured by a customer or a designer after manufacturinghence the term '' field-programmable''. The FPGA configuration is generally specified using a hardware de ...
hardware designers and architects, Bluespec supplies
high-level synthesis
High-level synthesis (HLS), sometimes referred to as C synthesis, electronic system-level (ESL) synthesis, algorithmic synthesis, or behavioral synthesis, is an automated design process that takes an abstract behavioral specification of a digital ...
(
ESL
English as a second or foreign language is the use of English by speakers with different native languages. Language education for people learning English may be known as English as a second language (ESL), English as a foreign language (EF ...
logic synthesis
In computer engineering, logic synthesis is a process by which an abstract specification of desired circuit behavior, typically at register transfer level (RTL), is turned into a design implementation in terms of logic gates, typically by a compu ...
) with
RTL. The first Bluespec workshop was held on August 13, 2007, at
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the mo ...
.
Bluespec SystemVerilog
Bluespec
Arvind had developed the Bluespec language called ''Bluespec SystemVerilog'' (BSV), a high-level
functional
Functional may refer to:
* Movements in architecture:
** Functionalism (architecture)
** Form follows function
* Functional group, combination of atoms within molecules
* Medical conditions without currently visible organic basis:
** Functional sy ...
hardware description programming language
A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language.
The description of a programming ...
which was essentially
Haskell
Haskell () is a general-purpose, statically-typed, purely functional programming language with type inference and lazy evaluation. Designed for teaching, research and industrial applications, Haskell has pioneered a number of programming lang ...
extended to handle chip design and
electronic design automation
Electronic design automation (EDA), also referred to as electronic computer-aided design (ECAD), is a category of software tools for designing Electronics, electronic systems such as integrated circuits and printed circuit boards. The tools wo ...
in general. The main designer and implementor of Bluespec was
Lennart Augustsson
Lennart Augustsson is a Swedish computer scientist. He was previously a lecturer at the Computing Science Department at Chalmers University of Technology. His research field is functional programming and implementations of functional languages.
A ...
. Bluespec is
partially evaluated (to convert the Haskell parts) and compiled to the
term rewriting system
In mathematics, computer science, and logic, rewriting covers a wide range of methods of replacing subterms of a formula with other terms. Such methods may be achieved by rewriting systems (also known as rewrite systems, rewrite engines, or red ...
(TRS). It comes with a
SystemVerilog
SystemVerilog, standardized as IEEE 1800, is a hardware description and hardware verification language used to model, design, simulate, test and implement electronic systems. SystemVerilog is based on Verilog and some extensions, and since 200 ...
frontend. BSV is compiled to the
Verilog
Verilog, standardized as IEEE 1364, is a hardware description language (HDL) used to model electronic systems. It is most commonly used in the design and verification of digital circuits at the register-transfer level of abstraction. It is also ...
RTL design files.
Tools
BSV releases are shipped with the following hardware development kit:
; BSV compiler
: The compiler takes BSV source code as input and generates a hardware description for either Verilog or Bluesim as output. It was opensourced by Bluespec inc. in 2020 under
New BSD License
BSD licenses are a family of permissive free software licenses, imposing minimal restrictions on the use and distribution of covered software. This is in contrast to copyleft licenses, which have share-alike requirements. The original BSD lice ...
terms.
; Libraries
: BSV is shipped with a set programming idioms and hardware structures
;
Verilog
Verilog, standardized as IEEE 1364, is a hardware description language (HDL) used to model electronic systems. It is most commonly used in the design and verification of digital circuits at the register-transfer level of abstraction. It is also ...
modules
: Several primitive BSV elements, such as FIFOs and registers, are expressed as Verilog primitives.
; Bluesim
: A cycle simulator for BSV designs.
; Bluetcl
: A collection of
Tcl
TCL or Tcl or TCLs may refer to:
Business
* TCL Technology, a Chinese consumer electronics and appliance company
**TCL Electronics, a subsidiary of TCL Technology
* Texas Collegiate League, a collegiate baseball league
* Trade Centre Limited, a ...
extensions, scripts, and packages to link into a Bluespec design.
References
"A History of Haskell: being lazy with class" Paul Hudak
Paul Raymond Hudak (July 15, 1952 – April 29, 2015) was an American musician and professor of computer science at Yale University who was best known for his involvement in the design of the Haskell programming language, as well as several ...
(
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
),
John Hughes (
Chalmers University
Chalmers University of Technology ( sv, Chalmers tekniska högskola, often shortened to Chalmers) is a Swedish university located in Gothenburg that conducts research and education in technology and natural sciences at a high international leve ...
),
Simon Peyton Jones
Simon Peyton Jones (born 18 January 1958) is a British computer scientist who researches the implementation and applications of functional programming languages, particularly lazy functional programming.
Education
Peyton Jones graduated from ...
(
Microsoft Research
Microsoft Research (MSR) is the research subsidiary of Microsoft. It was created in 1991 by Richard Rashid, Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold with the intent to advance state-of-the-art computing and solve difficult world problems through technologi ...
),
Philip Wadler
Philip Lee Wadler (born April 8, 1956) is an American computer scientist known for his contributions to programming language design and type theory. He is the chair of Theoretical Computer Science at the Laboratory for Foundations of Computer S ...
(
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
), The Third ACM SIGPLAN History of Programming Languages Conference (HOPL-III)
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, June 9–10, 2007.
External links
Bluespec homepageBluespec: User guide
Equipment semiconductor companies
Companies established in 2003
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