Why there is no standard interface class in SystemC

[Roman Popov]

In SystemVerilog there is a standard interface keyword for module-like interface structures. Main purpose of interfaces is grouping of ports, protocol handling logic and assertions together. 

In SytemC there is no standard one in a language. Because of this each vendor has it's own way to create interfaces: some use pragmas, others special MACRO. In some tools interface is a class derived both from sc_module and sc_interface.

There are two typedefs in a SystemC library:

typedef sc_module sc_channel;
typedef sc_module sc_behavior;

Was it supposed that one of these should be used for interface classes? 

[vishwap]

I don't remember if the concept of interface came first in SystemC or SystemVerilog.

But the interfaces are pretty much there in SystemC.

Look at sc_interface.

You can define your own interface

class my_interface : public sc_interface

{

// ports and methods

}

 

then you can use this interface to define ports like this.

class my_module : public sc_module

{

   ........

   sc_port<my_interface> myPort;

}

 

And the you can define your channels which you can use to connect this new type of ports.

 

This I am just giving a rough idea. There are some examples available in the distribution.

 

[Roman Popov]

17 minutes ago, vishwap said:

You can define your own interface

class my_interface : public sc_interface

No, this is not how interface in SystemVerilog works. Your example is more like Java or C# interface.

[David Black]

Java / C# interface is precisely what SystemC interface is. 

Your original question was more about port aggregation. The problem is that Verilog ports are really quite a different concept. To be sure , there are superficial similarities, SystemC is not an HDL. 

Mind you, it is quite easy to aggregate SystemC ports. Just define an aggregate class derived from sc_port. This would also allow you to crate aggregate methods (I.e. beyond simple bind). Just don’t expect this to be useable in synthesis. Perhaps a savvy EDA vendor will pickup on This if there is sufficient commercial interest, which I doubt. 

[Roman Popov]

Perhaps a savvy EDA vendor will pickup on This if there is sufficient commercial interest, which I doubt. 

Well, actually all HLS tools I've used have notion of modular interfaces. I.e. special kind of modules that aggregate ports together with protocol-handling threads and methods.

For example in C-to-Silicon compiler you have to derive from both sc_module and sc_interface to create an interface module:

struct slave : sc_module , sc_interface {
    sc_in<bool>  data_rdy{"data_rdy"};
    sc_in<int>   data{"data"};
    sc_out<bool> ack{"ack"};
    sc_port<slave_if> slave_port{"slave_port"}
    ...      
};

The problem is that every tool has it's own way to define this concept.

This seem to me like a language design issue: Why not standardize a common keyword for this concept?