ForSyDe: System design using a functional language and models of computation

Abstract

The ForSyDe methodology aims to push system design to a higher level of abstraction by combining the functional programming paradigm with the theory of Models of Computation (MoCs). A key concept of ForSyDe is the use of higher-order functions as process constructors to create processes. This leads to well-defined and well-structured ForSyDe models and gives a solid base for formal analysis. The book chapter introduces the basic concepts of the ForSyDe modeling framework and presents libraries for several MoCs and MoC interfaces for the modeling of heterogeneous systems, including support for the modeling of run-time reconfigurable processes. The formal nature of ForSyDe enables transformational design refinement using both semantic-preserving and nonsemantic-preserving design transformations. The chapter also introduces a general synthesis concept based on process constructors, which is exemplified by means of a hardware synthesis tool for synchronous ForSyDe models. Most examples in the chapter are modeled with the Haskell version of ForSyDe. However, to illustrate that ForSyDe is languageindependent, the chapter also contains a short overview of SystemC-ForSyDe.