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FILENUMBER: 6016 BEGIN_KEYWORDS Performance Analysis Software END_KEYWORDS DATE: april 1994 TITLE: Performance Analysis Software Available Performance Analysis Software Available (Contributed by R. Mandayam of Univ. of Cincinnati) PDL (Performance Description Language) is a language for writing performance analysis programs. You can compile and execute PDL programs using the PDL compiler and kernel. Using PDL you can write performance models independently of specific designs. Allowable configurations by which a system may be constructed can be stated in PDL and performance attributes of the system can be described in terms of the attributes of its constituent components. PDL has been designed to provide the CAD community with a powerful yet concise notation for specifying generic performance measures of hierarchical systems. Designers can specify generic templates that match individual instances of such compositions in an actual design description. Performance measures are then evaluated based on user specified evaluation rules associated with the matching template specification. PDL is developed at Digital Design Environments Laboratory, University of Cincinnati. Interested users are encouraged to obtain the distribution files by anonymous ftp, install it and experiment with it. If you would like more information about the system, please refer to the following: 1. PDL: Reference Manual by Ram Mandayam, Vijay Meduri, Ranga Vemuri Available with the distribution files. 2. "Performance Specification Using Attributed Grammars" by Ramanand Mandayam and Ranga Vemuri, in Proceedings of the 30th ACM/IEEE DAC, Dallas, June 1993. 3. "Performance Specification and Measurement" by Ramanand Mandayam and Ranga Vemuri in Proceedings of the IFIP Conf. on Hardware Description Languages, Ottawa, April 1993. 4. "Performance Description Language, PDL" by Ramanand Mandayam and Ranga Vemuri SRC TECHCON, Atlanta, Sep 1993 5. "Performance Verification using PDL and VHDL" by Bill Bradley, Ramanand Mandayam and Ranga Vemuri, in SRC TECHCON, Atlanta, Sep 1993. WHAT IS IN THIS RELEASE ----------------------- This release contains the following: 1. Executable binaries for the PDL compiler and PDL run-time kernel. The binaries have been compiled on SUN SPARC Stations running SunOS 4.1.3 The binaries are dynamically linked, hence they should run on SunOS Solaris 2.x also. (If you need sources for compiling on other platforms, please contact us.) 2. Interfaces to Gnuplot to produce plots to facilitate performance visualization. 3. A prototype translator to translate structural VHDL into PDL-specific design file (net-list) format. NOTE: ----- You must have the g++ 2.4.5 version of the GNU g++ compiler in order to compile and execute the evaluator in the kernel. HOW TO GET PDL SYSTEM --------------------- You can obtain the alpha release of the PDL system by anonymous ftp from thor.ece.uc.edu (129.137.8.118). The distribution files are under /pub/pdl. This directory contains the following files: a. pdl.tar.z: The PDL system in compressed, tarred form. b. lrm.ps.z: The compressed PDL Language Reference Manual in PostScript. c. lrm.dvi.z: The compressed PDL Language Reference Manual in DVI format. d. env.ps.z: The compressed PDL Environment documentation in PostScript. e. env.dvi.z: The compressed PDL Environment documentation in DVI format. f. README: This file. A copy of items b-f is also included in a. BUG REPORTS ----------- Please send bug reports to: ddel@thor.ece.uc.edu . Indicate subject as PDL BUG REPORT. PDL MAILING LIST ---------------- If you would like to be in the PDL mailing list, please send an email to ddel@thor.ece.uc.edu . Indicate subject as PDL MAILING . This mailing list will keep you informed on updates, additional examples and user information. We strongly encourage you to do this, so that we can track our users. AUTHORS ------- PDL system is developed by Ramanand Mandayam (ramanand@thor.ece.uc.edu), Vijay Meduri (vmeduri@thor.ece.uc.edu) and Dr. Ranga Vemuri (ranga@thor.ece.uc.edu) at the University of Cincinnati under the sponsorship of the Semiconductor Research Corporation and the Wright Labs of US Air-Force.

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