The application of Aspectual Feature Module in hardware description language - A perspective

Aspectual Feature Module (AFM) is a newly proposed methodology for the development of software product lines. Considering the similar problems of product line development in hardware (e.g. how to exploit the similarity between products in product line), this paper suggests the application of AFM in Hardware Description Languages (HDL). We propose the possible applications, including the usage of incremental development methodology in hardware development, the introduction of refinement as a new type of reusing mechanism similar to inheritance, as well as providing a new type of reusable module and supporting the development of hardware product line; AFM also enables the verification related code to be written in a non-intrusive way and encapsulated separately from design related code, as well as assertion monitor or function monitor needed by verification can be written with AFM. This paper demonstrates the application using FeatureC++ as the implement of AFM and SystemC as HDL.