Levels of Abstraction Algorithmic Level

• Behavioral domain

  • Complex algorithmic expressions, data structures, procedures, etc., which may include timing information
  • Description in a programming language such as C, Ada, or VHDL with support for concurrency and an appropriate timing model

• Structural domain

  • Hardware modules to represent processes of behavioral domain

• Physical domain

  • Clustering of operators into physical subsystems

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Behavioral description in something akin to a programming language. Examples include decoding, address calculations, etc.

In structural domain, hardware modules are thought of as operating concurrently, although internal operation may include sequential and concurrent statements.

Physical description may contain area and power requirement estimates.

This level begins to consider low-level timing issues, particularly as they impact resource-sharing decisions.