Communication between components is done with master and slave ports using Transaction Level Modeling (TLM). The ports use standard or user-defined protocols to communicate between components. Read and write accesses are always initiated from master ports.

The cores use this interface style to communicate with the peripherals. It can also be used for communication between peripherals. The communication connections are defined in the connection section of each component. See Connection section.

This kind of communication encapsulates each component behind an abstract interface. Components can easily be replaced by other components and it is generally easier to modify the structure of a system and to reuse components in other systems.

Components must interact during the simulation and this communication must be based on a defined protocol. LISA+ has the ability to define customized protocols that are tailored to the specific components and offer a clean interface. Ports of components can only be connected if they implement the same protocol.

More details on declaring, defining and using these protocols are given later. See Chapter 4 Protocols.

A port declaration has the format:

port_attributes port<protocol_name> instanceName[, instanceName2 …];

where:

If a port has behavior that implements one or more protocol functions, the port declaration also has a body containing behavior declarations:

port_attributes port<protocol_name> instanceName
{
    behavior f {    }
    behavior g {    }
    // …
}