Mapping Actor-Oriented Models to TLM Architectures

Actor-oriented modeling approaches are convenient for implementing functional models of embedded systems. Architectural models for heterogeneous system-on-chip architectures, however, are usually implemented using transaction level modeling (TLM). Even though both modeling paradigms, actor-oriented design and TLM, can conveniently be implemented using a common language such as SystemC, a methodology to smoothly integrate both approaches is still missing. In order to benefit from the best of both worlds, i.e., analyzability of actor-oriented models as well as fast simulation and synthesis from TLM, a combination of these two methodologies could be the next step towards electronic system level design. In this paper, we propose a systematic approach for mapping actor-oriented models onto complex TLM architectures. In particular, we will show how to map synchronization and data transport between actors to TLM 2.0 compliant bus protocols. The key contribution of this paper lies in our proposed methodology, which requires only a few additional lines of source code to map actor communication in actor-oriented SystemC models to TLM architectures and does not demand any reimplementation of the actors.