Embedded Systems Design TechniquesNumerical Methods and AlgorithmsVLSI and Analog Circuit Testing

Xin Zheng, Yongfeng Zhong, Chenyu Huang, Shaofen Zeng, Huaien Gao, Shuting Cai, Xiaoming Xiong

2026.2.28ACM Journal on Emerging Technologies in Computing Systems

DOI: 10.1145/3798042

tlooto Summary

SCAV provides a fully automated solution for translating both SystemC to Verilog and Verilog to SystemC, leveraging a translation framework with front-end/back-end separation and incorporates an Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) filter, optimizing the translation process by filtering out invalid content.

Abstract

The SystemC language, with its higher level of abstraction, plays a critical role in facilitating hardware/software co-design and architecture exploration. However, as most hardware models are predominantly written in Verilog and translating between SystemC and Verilog remains a challenge, an efficient and reliable tool for translating between these two languages is essential to streamline system development. This paper proposes SCAV, a bidirectional translator between SystemC and Verilog, which breaks these limitations. SCAV provides a fully automated solution for translating both SystemC to Verilog and Verilog to SystemC, leveraging a translation framework with front-end/back-end separation. Additionally, SCAV incorporates an Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) filter, optimizing the translation process by filtering out invalid content. The experimental results demonstrate that SCAV achieves a 100% adaptation rate for Verilog and a 98% adaptation rate for SystemC, with 100% accuracy in both directions. Furthermore, SCAV outperforms existing tools, delivering a minimum speedup of 18% across various test cases.

Citation format

ZHENG, Xin, et al. High-efficiency bidirectional translator between systemc and verilog. ACM Journal on Emerging Technologies in Computing Systems, 2026, 22(2): 1–19.