Transaction-level modeling: Difference between revisions

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'''Transaction-level modeling''' ('''TLM''') is a high-level approach to modeling digital systems where details of communication among modules are separated from the details of the implementation of functional units or of the communication architecture. Communication mechanisms such as buses or [[FIFO (computing and electronics)|FIFOs]] are modeled as channels, and are presented to modules using [[SystemC]] interface classes. Transaction requests take place by calling interface functions of these channel models, which encapsulate low-level details of the information exchange. At the transaction level, the emphasis is more on the functionality of the data transfers -– what data are transferred to and from what locations -– and less on their actual implementation, that is, on the actual protocol used for data transfer. This approach makes it easier for the system-level designer to experiment, for example, with different bus architectures (all supporting a common abstract interface) without having to recode models that interact with any of the buses, provided these models interact with the bus through the common interface.<ref>T. Grötker, S. Liao, G. Martin, S. Swan, System Design with SystemC. Springer, 2002, Chapter 8., pp. 131. ISBN 1-4020-7072-1 (quoted with permission)</ref>

However, the application of transaction-level modeling is not specific to the SystemC language and can be used with other languages. The concept of TLM first appears in system level language and modeling ___domain.<ref>L. Cai, D. Gajski, Transaction Level Modeling: An Overview, in proceedings of the Int. Conference on HW/SW Codesign and System Synthesis (CODES-ISSS), Oct. 2003, pp. 19–24</ref>