Microprocessor system data transfer interface design: an expert system approach using signal timing behavioral patterns
Benedikt Huber · Library and Archives Canada (Government of Canada) · 1998
DAME (Design Automation of Microprocessor-based systems using an Expert system approach) is an expert system for configuring and designing a customized microprocessor systems from original specifications. This work deals with the development of the data transfer interface design module in DAME: the Interface Designer. The automated Interface Designer is developed by extracting common features, functions and behavior of microprocessor components and representing them using knowledge representation techniques. The design is accomplished through pattern matching, by performing actions and procedures based on recognition of the standard behavior patterns of microprocessor component signals. The development of the Interface Designer production system is divided into three parts: a hierarchial network of frames that represents the components, a hierarchial network of frames that represents the interface and a set of forward chaining rules that represents the design expertise. Equivalent abstraction levels are developed for the component model, interface model and design rules, allowing the design process to proceed using a top-down methodology. The component behavior is abstracted at several levels. At the more abstract behavior level, the data transfer behavior is divided into a set of fundamental information transfers, namely the address, data, request, direction, type, delay, size and width information transfers. At the more detailed level, each information transfer is divided into state and timing information transfers, where state information represents the conceptual meaning of the state of a signal, and the timing information specifies when the state information is usable. Finally, the timing information is represented using a set of propagation delay invariant timi...