LISA (Language for Instruction Set Architectures) is a language to describe the instruction set architecture of a

processor Processor may refer to: Computing Hardware * Processor (computing) **Central processing unit (CPU), the hardware within a computer that executes a program *** Microprocessor, a central processing unit contained on a single integrated circuit (I ...

. LISA captures the information required to generate

software tools A programming tool or software development tool is a computer program that software developers use to create, debug, maintain, or otherwise support other programs and applications. The term usually refers to relatively simple programs, that can ...

(

compiler In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs that ...

assembler Assembler may refer to: Arts and media * Nobukazu Takemura, avant-garde electronic musician, stage name Assembler * Assemblers, a fictional race in the ''Star Wars'' universe * Assemblers, an alternative name of the superhero group Champions of ...

instruction set simulator An instruction set simulator (ISS) is a simulation model, usually coded in a high-level programming language, which mimics the behavior of a mainframe or microprocessor by "reading" instructions and maintaining internal variables which represent t ...

, ...) and implementation hardware (in

VHDL The VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL) is a hardware description language (HDL) that can model the behavior and structure of digital systems at multiple levels of abstraction, ranging from the system level down to that of logic gate ...

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 als ...

) of a given processor. LISA has been used to re-implement the hardware of existing processor cores, keeping the

binary compatibility Binary-code compatibility (binary compatible or object-code-compatible) is a property of a computer system, meaning that it can run the same executable code, typically machine code for a general-purpose computer CPU, that another computer syste ...

with the legacy version, as all

did already exist and legacy compiled software images could be executed on the newly created hardware. Another application has been to generate the ISS (

) for RISC processors such the ARM architecture ISSes. LISA is not focused on the modeling of other on-chip components around the processor core itself, such as peripherals, hardware accelerators, buses and memories; Other languages such as SystemC can be used for these. The language has not been yet standardised by

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

ISO ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization. ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance * Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007 * Iso ...

and is currently owned by RWTH Aachen University, in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Features

History

LISA was initially developed at Institute for Integrated Signal Processing Systems (ISS) Aachen, belonging to

RWTH Aachen RWTH Aachen University (), also known as North Rhine-Westphalia Technical University of Aachen, Rhine-Westphalia Technical University of Aachen, Technical University of Aachen, University of Aachen, or ''Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hoch ...

University, in

. The current official version from

is LISA 2.0. The language is still in evolution to cover research on processors, including

Reconfigurable computing Reconfigurable computing is a computer architecture combining some of the flexibility of software with the high performance of hardware by processing with very flexible high speed computing fabrics like field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Th ...

(in LISA 3.0), multi-core,

parallel programming Parallel computing is a type of computing, computation in which many calculations or Process (computing), processes are carried out simultaneously. Large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which can then be solved at the same time. ...

. One noticeable branch called LISA+ has been created for handling the modeling of peripherals such as interrupt controllers, timers, etc.

search for LISA+ Reference Language Manual

References

Papers

* V. Zivojnovic, S. Pees, Ch. Schläger, H. Meyr, ''LISA bridges gaps in high-tech languages'', Electronic Engineering Times, Oct 7, 1996

V. Zivojnovic, S. Pees, H. Meyr, ''LISA – machine description language and generic machine model for HW/SW co-design'', Proceedings of the IEEE Workshop on VLSI Signal Processing (San Francisco), Oct. 1996 * A. Chattopadhyay, H. Meyr and R. Leupers: ''LISA: A Uniform ADL for Embedded Processor Modeling, Implementation and Software Toolsuite Generation'' appearing in P. Mishra, N. Dutt, ''Processor Description Languages, Volume 1'', Morgan Kaufmann, 2008.

Books

* A. Hoffmann, H. Meyr, R. Leupers: ''Architecture Exploration for Embedded Processors with LISA'', Springer, 2010. * O. Wahlen: ''C Compiler Aided Design of Application-specific Instruction-set Processors Using the Machine Description Language LISA (Berichte Aus Der Electrotechnik)'',

Shaker Verlag Shaker Verlag is a German publishing house located in Düren and Maastricht, established in 1986 by Dr. Chaled Shaker. Shaker Verlag is a publisher of scientific literature, especially monographs and dissertations. More than 20,000 booksShaker V ...

GmbH, Germany (August 13, 2004).

External links

LISA
project page at RWTH Aachen, Germany
Processor Designer
is a tool sold by

Synopsys Synopsys is an American electronic design automation (EDA) company that focuses on silicon design and verification, silicon intellectual property and software security and quality. Products include tools for logic synthesis and physical de ...

to create processors from LISA 2.0 descriptions {{DEFAULTSORT:Language For Instruction Set Architecture Specification languages