ANN: Confluence -> Python for Hardware Verification

[Kim-Ee Yeoh]

christopher.saunter at durham.ac.uk (Christopher Saunter) wrote in message news:<bbks5h$cu9$1 at sirius.dur.ac.uk>...
> Tom Hawkins (tom1 at launchbird.com) wrote:
> : christopher.saunter at durham.ac.uk (Christopher Saunter) wrote in message news:<bbi8rq$glp$1 at sirius.dur.ac.uk>...
> : > Tom Hawkins (tom1 at launchbird.com) wrote:
>  
> : Confluence actually originated from a Python based HDL called
> : ParaCore (http://www.dilloneng.com/paracore.html).
> 
> Also, from reading the docs, maybee it's time I revived my side project of 
> investigating Haskell...

In that case, you'd really want to look at BlueSpec at bluespec.org,
which is based off Haskell in the same way that Confluence is based
off Ocaml.  The BlueSpec compiler is freely available at the website.

Among the major differences between the two is that BlueSpec generates
VHDL and is, like Haskell, strongly-typed.  The theoretical
underpinnings of BlueSpec are documented in a PhD thesis by James Hoe
written while at MIT.

BlueSpec is operating under less publicized conditions, but IMO, its
symbolic computation capabilities, particularly the term-rewriting
features, are noteworthy.  In other words, if your hardware designs
call for extremely complex control structures, modelling in BlueSpec
could very well accelerate your projects.

(P.S.  I am affiliated to neither companies.)