Analogue and mixed-signal extension to SystemC

The paper presents a new methodology that enables extensions of SystemC to the analogue domain and allows modelling of mixed-signal and mixed-energy domain systems at arbitrary levels of abstraction. The new language constructs support analogue system variables, analogue components and user-defined ordinary differential and algebraic equations. Support for digital/analogue interfaces has been provided for smooth integration of digital and analogue parts. Associated issues such as dealing with extremely small and zero time-step sizes have been addressed. A novel implementation of the lock-step mixed-signal synchronisation method to integrate the analogue kernel with the digital one has been proposed. Operation of the extended, mixed-signal simulation platform, named SystemC-A, is demonstrated using a suite of numerically difficult AMS examples including a practical, mixed-signal example of a PLL frequency multiplier with large signal noise and jitter.