RBStreX: Hardware XML parser for embedded system

The growth of XML usage raises the necessity for embedded XML parser implementation. Embedded systems differed from conventional computing platforms for its limited resources. Among existing XML parsers, SAX and VTD-XML appear to be potential candidates for embedded implementation. The former utilizes minimum resources to perform forward-only XML streaming; while the latter provides random access to XML document at moderate resources. This paper proposes a new idea of Roll-Back Streaming XML (RBStreX) parser for embedded XML parsing. RBStreX is a “pull” type SAX parser that can perform backward referencing through its “roll-back” mechanism. Its resource requirement is only slightly higher than that of SAX and much lower than that of VTD-XML. A simple RBStreX had been designed using VHDL and simulated using Altera Quartus II software.