Hardware Scripting in Gel

Gel is a hardware description language that enables quick scripting of high level designs and can be easily extended to new design patterns. It is expression oriented and extremely succinct. Modules are described as functions and composed through function calls. Types and bit widths are inferred automatically to guarantee correctness. Together these features reduce hardware development time, allowing complex designs to be scripted quickly. A simulator and logic analyzer are available to help in the development process. A compiler has been developed that translates Gel to Verilog, and a number of applications have been demonstrated. This paper introduces the core language, demonstrates its extensibility, and shows how design patterns can easily be created. Finally, we compare a few applications written in Gel against equivalents written in Verilog.