Automating system-level design: from specification to architecture

In this paper we present a new method to specify digital systems at the system level and to automatically transform a specification into a set of required system components from which in turn a complete system can be constructed using a knowledge-based configuration system. Our approach bases on an object-oriented domain model which captures all knowledge about a certain domain of systems. Throughout the paper we use the domain of RISC processors as an example. We show how the designer specifies systems based on a given domain model and how a specification is automatically mapped into a set of system functions