I am honored and delighted to write the foreword to this very first book
about SystemC. It is now an excellent time to summarize what SystemC
really is and what it can be used for. The main message in the area of
design in the 2001 International Te- nologyRoadmapfor Semiconductors
(ITRS) isthat"cost ofdesign is the greatest threat to the continuation
ofthe semiconductor roadmap. " This recent revision of the ITRS
describes the major productivity improvements of the last few years as
"small block reuse," "large block reuse," and "IC implementation tools.
" In order to continue to reduce design cost, the - quired future
solutions will be "intelligent test benches" and "embedded system-level
methodology. " As the new system-level specification and design
language, SystemC - rectly contributes to these two solutions. These
will have the biggest - pact on future design technology and will reduce
system implementation cost. Ittook SystemC less than two years to emerge
as the leader among the many new and well-discussed system-level
designlanguages. Inmy op- ion, this is due to the fact that SystemC
adopted object-oriented syst- level design--the most promising method
already applied by the majority of firms during the last couple of
years. Even before the introduction of SystemC, many system designers
have attempted to develop executable specifications in C++. These
executable functional specifications are then refined to the well-known
transaction level, to model the communication of system-level processes.
