DTNS: a Discrete Time Network Simulator for C/C++ Language Based Digital Hardware Simulations

This paper introduces a way to enhance digital system design, and multimedia hardware design in particular, through high-level discrete time system simulations. Towards the same end, bus based interconnection architecture is utilized for intellectual property interfacing. The emphasis is on architecture design, design space exploration, and hardware/software co-simulation. A Discrete Time Network Simulator (DTNS) is described as a novel extension to current simulators. DTNS simplifies many aspects of architecture exploration and supports technology optimization for continuous-media applications. Design re-use is facilitated by the use of a common programming language and data transmission efficiency by using the Heterogeneous IP Block Interconnection (HIBI) scheme. The fixed time increment, discrete time, approach allows rapid model development and fast simulations. Long simulations can be run to obtain statistical performance information. A video encoder (H.263) based simulation is used to demonstrate these capabilities.