hopCP: language definition, semantics and examples

We describe a formalism for high level modeling of hardware based on flow graphs and nonatomic actions called hopCP. A module is the description of a hardware system in hopCP, which contains a flow graph to model the behavioral aspects and ports which represent the communication links. Operations are provided to manipulate modules and flow graphs. Nonatomic actions provide the necessary functional and temporal abstraction to model hardware and action refinement is introduced to bridge the abstraction gap for high level synthesis. Examples are provided to elucidate the semantics of hopCP and illustrate the expressive power of the language.