MICROELECTRONIC SYSTEMS NEWS
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.
dbouldin@utk.edu