BEH(3)

💅 BEH(3) — Generic behavioural data structures 💅

okay so this little icon is from the cao-vlsi reference manual, and we’re about to get into it. ✨

🌸 ORIGIN 🌸

This software belongs to the ALLIANCE CAD SYSTEM, developed by the ASIM team at the LIP6 laboratory of Université Pierre et Marie CURIE, in Paris, France. 🫶

• Web: http://asim.lip6.fr/recherche/alliance/
• E-mail: alliance-users@asim.lip6.fr

✨ NAME ✨

BEH — generic behavioural data structures. That’s the name, bestie. 💖

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So BEH is a generic data structure supporting vlsi concepts, and it lets you represent a behavioral description in a data structure. It’s giving “one structure to hold the whole vibe.” 👑

The goal of BEH is to define an ad hoc single data structure (object), with well known fixed meaning for each concept manipulated within a behavioural description. So any tool that needs to work with a behavioral view can be build upon it using these structures. Like, everyone agrees on what each thing means — iconic behavior, no cap. 🎀

For each object (data structure), a set of functions has been defined in order to add, delete or access it. These functions are defined in a low-level library libBeh108.a. Some other functions are higher level. They are defined in a high-level library libBhl108.a. There are also some parsers-drivers. A parser reads a behavioural description file in a given format and build up a complete BEH data base. A driver creates a text file in a given behavioural description format from a BEH data base. A VHDL parser-driver is available in the libBvl103.a library. 🧚

The behavioural view involves the following notions, and yes we’re listing them all:

• figure — behavioural representation of a circuit (see BEFIG).
• port list — ordered list of the circuit’s logical ports (see BEPOR).
• generic — a global data (constants) relative to a circuit other than logical ports (see BEGEN).
• simple output — a simple output port of the circuit (see BEOUT).
• bused output — a bused output port of the circuit (see BEBUS).
• input — an input port of the circuit (see BERIN).
• internal register — an internal memorizing element (see BEREG).
• internal signal — an internal simple signal of the circuit (see BEAUX).
• internal bus — an internal bused signal of the circuit (see BEBUX).
• assert — a condition, noticed by the circuit designer, that insures a correct usage of the circuit. The validity of these conditions is to be checked continuously at run time (see BEMSG).

⚠️ Heads up bestie: in order to use BEH, concepts on use of libraries are needed. And, since these libraries are under development, the code is subject to change. 😭

To enable work, a static version of each library is always present for the user. Libraries and header files are suffixed by a number (the library’s version). The programmer can prefer to work with an earlier version of a library rather than the most recent one. However, it is recommended to adapt software to libraries as soon as possible in order to spotlight potential compatibility problems before old libraries are removed. Like, future-proof your fave, fr fr. 🌈

A makefile is necessary for all BEH applications. This is required because any soft must be easily recompilable, and knowing the needed libraries for a BEH based program is not an easy matter. It can’t be achieved any other way, so do use makefile. No makefile = no slay. 💅

For each behavioural description format a parser and a driver have been developed. These are organized in as many separate libraries as description format. So if a parser or driver changes it is not needed to recompile BEH. Only a relink of the application is needed. 🫶

In terms of software organization, BEH is split into two libraries for the basic functions, a header file for structures and variable declarations, and, up to now, one parser-driver library for VHDL format. ✨

It is to be noticed that library’s version number is incremented when, at least, one function composing the library has been modified. Therefore, BEH libraries may evolve independently from each other. Main character energy: each library doing its own thing. 👑

Here follows the list of the libraries and their contents. 🎀

• libBeh108.a — the low-level add/del/fre/rmv crew:

beh_addbefig, beh_addbeaux, beh_addbebux, beh_addbegen, beh_addbebus, beh_addbemsg,
beh_addbeout, beh_addbepor, beh_addbereg, beh_addberin, beh_addbiabl, beh_addbinode,
beh_delbefig, beh_delbeaux, beh_delbebux, beh_delbegen, beh_delbebus, beh_delbemsg,
beh_delbeout, beh_delbepor, beh_delbereg, beh_delberin, beh_delbiabl, beh_delbinode,
beh_frebefig, beh_frebeaux, beh_frebebux, beh_frebegen, beh_frebebus, beh_frebemsg,
beh_frebeout, beh_frebepor, beh_frebereg, beh_freberin, beh_frebiabl, beh_frebinode,
beh_rmvbefig, beh_rmvbeaux, beh_rmvbebux, beh_rmvbegen, beh_rmvbebus, beh_rmvbemsg,
beh_rmvbeout, beh_rmvbepor, beh_rmvbereg, beh_rmvberin

• libBhl108.a — high-level bestie:

beh_debug

The libraries are organized in such a way that no cycle can appear through calls. It means that if a given library a function calls another function in another library, then none of the functions of this one does call any function that belongs to the first library. No messy call loops, periodt. 💀

🍓 EXAMPLE 🍓

In order to use BEH libraries, one needs something like that in its makefile:

HEADER = -I/labo/include
LIB = -L/labo/lib -lBeh108 -lBhl108 -lBvl109 -llog200 -lMut315

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

mbk(1), log(3)

💀 BUG REPORT 💀

This tool is under development at the ASIM department of the LIP6 laboratory. We need your feedback to improve documentation and tools. So like, tell them if something’s giving chaos. 🙈

— from your ASIM/LIP6 bestie, dated October 1, 1997, on manual page BEH(3) 💖🦋