Conclusion

The new hardware description languages, with their mixed and multi-disciplinary extension, enable more formal design flows. They should help increase productivity by supporting powerful methodological techniques. Some communities have already adopted these means, but others are slow to do so. Power electronics, probably with good reason, is one of these poor performers, but economic constraints are forcing it to take the plunge and adopt the means to produce converters in particular, using virtual prototyping. In other words, no design stage will have been carried over to physical prototyping.

Adopting this language as a communication medium has many undeniable advantages. Even if the future holds surprises and developments – what is the future of SystemC and its AMS extension, for example – we need to integrate these new tools into our approach to our business...