Hardware engineering models rely on abstraction to manage complexity and improve design
From Physical Devices to RTL Models: Abstraction and Validation in Hardware Engineering
Hardware Architecture
Summary
Hardware engineers use simplified models to design electronic devices because looking at every tiny detail is too complicated and slow. The authors explain how these models focus on certain key features while leaving out others, which means the models aren’t perfect but still very helpful. They describe different ways to create these simple models and how grouping small parts like transistors into bigger parts like gates helps engineers work faster and better. This balance between detail and simplicity is crucial for making complex hardware designs manageable.
What this means in practice
- •For digital circuit designers: Use abstraction methods and design disciplines to create manageable and efficient hardware models that speed up simulation and improve productivity.
- •For embedded system engineers: Apply abstraction levels like gate and register transfer to validate hardware designs before manufacturing physical devices.
A position paper. It proposes an approach and reports no results.
Authors
Wolfgang Ecker, Natalie Simson, Johannes Ecker, Endri Kaja
Abstract
This paper introduces the foundational principles underlying hardware engineering models and argues that abstraction is their defining characteristic. Because abstraction necessarily omits detail and constrains what engineers can build, models are inherently incomplete in specific respects - or, as George Box famously observed, "All models are wrong, but some are useful". At the same time, abstraction is essential for simplification, which is key to managing complexity. More abstract models also tend to simulate faster because fewer details must be considered. This paper subsequently examines a range of abstraction methods in digital design - sometimes referred to as design disciplines - including lumped models, value-discrete models, and time-discrete models. Together with constraints that define the validity of the abstraction and design guidelines, these abstraction methods establish design disciplines. This paper further relates these forms of abstraction to pre-clustered design elements such as transistors, gates, registers, and transfer functions. These pre-clustered elements define abstraction levels, such as the gate level, and are presented as a key enabler of increased design productivity.