Exploiting polymorphism in HW design: a case study in the ATM domain

The need of raising the level of abstraction and improving reuse in HW design suggests the adoption of an object-oriented (OO) design methodology based on SystemC-Plus (i.e. an enhanced SystemC). Such a methodology, developed during the ODETTE IST project, allows the exploitation of the key features of the OO paradigm (i.e. information hiding, inheritance, and polymorphism) at the behavioral level of description while guaranteeing synthesizability. In this context, the goal of this paper is to highlight advantages and drawbacks derived from the exploitation of polymorphism in the design of an ATM component: the UTOPIA Cells Handler.