SystemC and ESL in 2007: Everyone's Talking the Same Language

NICE, FRANCE - April 17, 2007 - The Open SystemCT Initiative (OSCI), an independent non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and advancing SystemC as an industry standard language for electronic system-level design, released a new report today confirming worldwide adoption of SystemC is strong and continues to grow, and that SystemC user groups in all geographies are quickly adding members and taking an active role in promoting standardization efforts.

The report, titled "SystemC Users Group Survey Data Trends Report, April 2007," analyzes user survey data from recent SystemC industry events to illustrate the key trends in user awareness, learning, and application of the SystemC language since it became an IEEE standard in December 2005. The report is available for download at http://www.systemc.org.

"Clearly we are seeing a surge in SystemC acceptance and usage since it became an international IEEE standard," said CoWare's Patrick Sheridan, OSCI executive director. "For large companies and individual users alike, SystemC is now a major and mainstream feature in electronic system level (ESL) design that provides the foundation for a worldwide ecosystem that would otherwise not be possible without a standard language."

SystemC in 2007: Adoption Data and Trends

In the last year, since members of the SystemC community have been able to download the official IEEE-1666 SystemC Language Reference Manual from the IEEE website, OSCI grew membership by 30%. Additional trend data highlighted in the new report includes:

• World-wide SystemC usage is steadily increasing for production designs. Over 53% surveyed are using SystemC in production today, up from 40% in 2003. Of those using SystemC, 15% claim SystemC experience with 10 or more design projects in 2007, up from 6% in 2005.

• World-wide demand for SystemC TLM standards and methodologies that enable improved model interoperability and reuse is fueled by a steady mix of traditional SystemC use-models and the recent rapid growth in the use of SystemC virtual platforms for software development.

SystemC in 2007: User Groups Thriving

Beyond the data, SystemC momentum is evident around the world in the form of thriving user groups in North America, Europe, and Japan, and recent announcements of newly formed groups in India and Latin America. The European SystemC Users Group, the first regional group to form, has grown from 40 members to over 1,000 in the past seven years, according to chairman Wolfgang Rosenstiel of the University of Tuebingen.

"SystemC is now the standard language for system-level modeling and ESL design," Rosenstiel said. "Our European users group provides a unique forum for sharing the SystemC experience among research, business, and academia, while also giving us a voice into how SystemC grows and evolves through the standards process."

In Japan SystemC use continues to grow. Nearly 20% of respondents at the Japan SystemC users forum held in January now call SystemC their primary design language, doubling 2003's number.

"SystemC is widely used in Japan as the ESL language both for modeling and verification," said Fujitsu's Takashi Hasegawa, chair of the SystemC Working Group in Japan, EDA-TC/JEITA. "With the enlargement and complexity of LSI, further improvement of design productivity and quality is required, and we believe SystemC is the solution."

"It has been great to see the strong growth and depth of participation for the North American SystemC Users Group (NASCUG)," said Jack Donovan of ESLX Inc., NASCUG organizer. "This year we had well over 20 abstract submissions for five presentations at our DVCon meeting this year. From our surveys, 80% of the current attendees now come from organizations that are already using SystemC; in the early days, only about 20% of those attending came from an organization already using SystemC."

"The goal of the India SystemC User Group (ISCUG) is to facilitate easy adoption of SystemC in India and help the India SystemC community to grow and leverage advantages of SystemC to the maximum extent," said ISCUG co-founder Subodh Patil of Poseidon Systems. "The first ever ICSUG meeting was attended by 45 delegates, and the group is growing with delegates form various companies like Texas Instruments, NXP Semiconductor, ARM, ST, Agere Systems, Wipro, and other companies. We are committed to make SystemC a widely accepted and used standard for system modeling and verification in India."

"Latin American groups were early adopters of SystemC from its very beginning, and the use of the language has grown considerably since then," said Professor Guido Araujo of Brazil's Computer Systems Laboratory at the University of Campinas, and organizer of the Latin America SystemC Users Group (LASCUG). "LASCUG grew up from the need of these groups to collectively share their ideas and accumulated knowledge on SystemC technologies and applications. LASCUG will allow us to increase the dissemination of SystemC in Latin America, while enabling a valuable repository of knowledge and experiences for the region."

SystemC in 2007: More OSCI Milestones

Along with increased use, SystemC and OSCI have also notched a series of noteworthy technological achievements, including approval of the IEEE 1666T-2005 standard for SystemC, and the impending release of the TLM 2.0 standard.

In addition, an open source proof-of-concept version of SystemC library has been developed by OSCI which incorporates improvements made through the IEEE standardization process and provides full compatibility with the IEEE LRM. To register and view the proof-of-concept library, please visit www.systemc.org.

Public review of the TLM 2.0 draft kit has been completed and new submissions have been received for evaluation and consideration. The TLM 2.0 standard will clarify TLM terminology and provide a new baseline of interoperability.

"I'm very excited about taking the baton for the next leg of OSCI TLM standardization," said Intel's Trevor Wieman, newly appointed chairman of the OSCI TLM Working Group. "The TLM Working Group's members bring a wealth of TLM expertise and broad perspective; they are all very committed to this effort and share a sense of urgency about delivering TLM standards by the end of this year."

About SystemC and OSCI

The Open SystemC Initiative (OSCI) is an independent, not-for-profit association composed of a broad range of organizations dedicated to supporting and advancing SystemC as an open industry standard for system-level modeling, design and verification. SystemC is a C++ class library that supports design from concept to implementation in hardware and software. The IEEE Standards Association recently approved the standard for the SystemC library as IEEE Std. 1666-2005. As a result of a partnership between OSCI and the IEEE, the IEEE 1666-2005 Standard SystemC Language Reference Manual (LRM) is now available free of charge on the IEEE website at http://standards.ieee.org/getieee/1666/index.html. For further information about SystemC and OSCI visit www.systemc.org.