Partitioning of VLSI systems from a high-level specification

This paper presents a new method for behavioural partitioning at the system level. The method is based on an extended finite state machine model. Partitioning is achieved through the use of five system-level primitives: Move, Merge, Split, Cut and Map. The result of the partitioning is a set of interconnected sub-systems. Partitioning is done interactively by successive application of these primitives. This allows an interactive exploration of the solution space. The partitioning tool has been implemented with a graphical interface and could be used even with on-line command