The first question any reader should ask is “Why this book?” We decided to write this book after learning SystemC and after using minimal documents to help us through the quest of becoming comfortable with the language’s finer points. After teaching several SystemC classes, we were even more convinced that an introductory book focused on the SystemC language was needed. We decided to contribute such a book.
This book is about SystemC. It focuses on enabling the reader to master the language. The reader will be introduced to the syntax and structure of the language, and the reader will also learn about the features and usage of SystemC that makes it a tool to shorten the development cycle of large system designs.
We allude to system design techniques and methods by way of examples throughout the book. Several books that discuss system-level design methodology are available, and we believe that SystemC is ideally suited to implement many of these methods. After reading this resource, the reader should not only be adept at using SystemC constructs efficiently, but also have an appreciation of how the constructs work together and how they can be used to create high performance simulation models.
We believe there is enough information to convey about the SystemC language to justify this stand-alone book. We hope you agree. We also believe that there is enough material for a second book that focuses on using SystemC to implement these system-level design methods. With reader encouragement, the authors hope to start on a second book that delves deeper into the application of the language (after recovering from the writing of this book).
