C/C++: progress or deadlock in system-level specification

With SOC demands there has been recently high interest in system level design, particularly, HW/SW codesign. In order to accommodate SW, the system companies as well as EDA vendors would like to use C as the language for System level Design. Many people are trying with subset of C and others with C++ by introducing classes that correspond to HW (VHDL/Verilog) concepts. C/C++ syntax has become the most popular for defining new C/C++ language extensions for system-level specification and design. A wide community of system designers and EDA suppliers believe that C/C++ is the most appropriate vehicle to use as a next-generation language. However, there are many challenges and open problems.