UT designs functional programming language that reduces chip design costs

ICT researchers at the University of Twente have developed a functional programming language with which chip designers can prove that the behavior of chips does not change as a result of adjustments. This should make the design process cheaper.

An important part of the University of Twente’s research concerns the development of the CλaSH compiler. This compiler converts the functional language Haskell, the first version of which appeared in 1990, and uses similar syntax and semantics. A functional language can be used to describe hardware: combinatorial circuits can be modeled as mathematical functions. CλaSH thereby converts the high-level descriptions to the lower-level hardware description language vhdl.

“Manufacturers have been using the same techniques for twenty years during the design process of new chips. Extensive testing is required after each step in the design process,” according to the University of Twente. Design changes, for example to make chips faster, can have unintended effects and lead to major problems.

“Whereas as a software developer you can still correct a code error by sending a patch, if there is an error in a chip you have to recall all products that contain this chip,” explains PhD student Christiaan Baaij. For example, Intel was forced to stop production of Sandy Bridge chipsets in 2011 due to a design flaw.

Using a modern functional language like CλaSH now allows designers to formally prove that hardware transformations do not affect the behavior of chips. The advantage of the method would be that it is no longer necessary to verify everything again and again at every step in the design process. The method therefore reduces the complexity and costs of chip production, the researchers say.

The research was conducted within the Computer Architecture for Embedded Systems department of the CTIT research institute of the University of Twente. According to the University of Twente, there is great interest from the business community, but concerns are hesitant to switch to functional languages.