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==Background and History==
===Early Development (1990s-2000s)===
Transaction Level Modeling emerged in the late 1990s and early 2000s as a direct response to the increasing complexity of [[System-on-a-chip|system-on-chip]] designs and the limitations of traditional [[Register-transfer level|register-transfer level]] (RTL) modeling for system-level verification and software development.<ref name="Gajski_ESL">{{cite book |title=SpecC: Specification Language and Methodology |author=Gajski, Daniel D. |publisher=Kluwer Academic Publishers |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-7923-7822-5}}</ref> The semiconductor industry was experiencing a a widening disparity between design complexity and designer productivity.<ref name="ITRS_Design">{{cite report |title=International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors: Design |publisher=Semiconductor Industry Association |year=1999 |url=http://www.itrs.net/}}</ref>
The foundational concepts of TLM were developed simultaneously by several research groups and companies. [[Cadence Design Systems]] introduced early transaction-level concepts in their [[SpecC]] language in the mid-1990s,<ref name="SpecC_Origins">{{cite conference |title=SpecC: A Design Language for System Level Design |author=Gajski, Daniel D. |conference=Design Automation Conference |year=1997 |pages=464-469 |doi=10.1145/266021.266138}}</ref> while [[Synopsys]] developed similar concepts in their [[SystemC]] methodology starting in 1999.<ref name="SystemC_History">{{cite journal |title=SystemC: Past, Present, and Future |author=Grötker, Thorsten |journal=IEEE Design & Test |volume=20 |issue=6 |pages=72-77 |year=2003 |doi=10.1109/MDT.2003.1246169}}</ref>
In 2000, Thorsten Grötker, R&D Manager at [[Synopsys]] was preparing a presentation on the communication mechanism in what was to become the [[SystemC]] 2.0 standard, and referred to it as "transaction-based modeling". Gilles Baillieu, then a corporate application engineer at Synopsys, insisted that the new term had to contain "level", as in "[[register-transfer level]]" or "behavioral level". The fact that TLM does not denote a single level of abstraction but rather a modeling technique didn't make him change his mind. It had to be "level" in order to make it stick. So it became "TLM".{{Citation needed|date=March 2008}}
===SystemC and OSCI Formation===
The development of [[SystemC]] proved crucial to TLM's adoption. SystemC was initially developed by [[Synopsys]] in 1999 as a [[C++]]-based system-level modeling language.<ref name="SystemC_Announcement">{{cite news |title=Synopsys Introduces SystemC for System-Level Design |newspaper=EE Times |date=1999-10-04 |url=https://www.eetimes.com/synopsys-introduces-systemc/}}</ref> In 2000, the [[Open SystemC Initiative]] (OSCI) was formed as an independent consortium to develop and promote SystemC as an open standard.<ref name="OSCI_Formation">{{cite press release |title=Open SystemC Initiative Formed to Advance System-Level Design |publisher=Open SystemC Initiative |date=2000-09-12}}</ref> Founding members included [[Synopsys]], [[Cadence Design Systems]], [[CoWare]], and several major semiconductor companies including [[ARM Holdings]], [[Infineon Technologies]], and [[STMicroelectronics]].<ref name="OSCI_Members">{{cite web |url=https://www.accellera.org/about/history |title=Accellera History |publisher=Accellera Systems Initiative |access-date=2024-01-15}}</ref> The organization developed the OSCI simulator for open use and distribution.
Since those early days SystemC has been adopted as the language of choice for high level synthesis, connecting the design modeling and virtual prototype application domains with the functional verification and automated path gate level implementation. This offers project teams the ability to produce one model for multiple purposes. At the 2010 DVCon event, OSCI produced a specification of the first synthesizable subset of SystemC for industry standardization.
==Key Concepts==
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