Top-down modeling of RISC processors in VHDL

The authors present a high-level design modeling methodology with three modeling levels: a specification level, an interface level, and a functional level. They demonstrate the methodology on a RISC processor design. All models have been implemented in VHDL and simulated on a SPARC 1 workstation using the ZYCAD VHDL simulator, version 1.0a. Experimental results demonstrate the feasibility and usefulness of the methodology.<>