SystemC

Most software languages are not particularly suited to modeling hardware systems. SystemC was developed to provide features that facilitate hardware modeling, particularly the parallelism of hardware, in a mainstream programming language.

An important objective was that software engineers should be comfortable with using SystemC. Rather than invent a new language, SystemC is based on the existing C++ language. SystemC is a true super-set of C++, so any C++ program is automatically a valid SystemC program.

SystemC uses the template, macro and library features of C++ to extend the language. Version 2, released Feb 1st 2001, extended SystemC into a higher level of abstraction adding abstract communications, transaction-level modeling, and capabilities for the creation of virtual platforms (VP) modeling. This release added abstract ports, dynamic processes, and timed event notifications.