Ptolemy Classic

Ptolemy Home Page

Ptolemy Classic is a heterogeneous simulation and design environment supporting multiple models of computation. It is written in C++, and has a (now rather old) graphical user interface for constructing models visually as block diagrams. It supports dataflow, discrete-event, process networks, synchronous/reactive, and finite-state machine models of computation. It can generate implementations in C and assembly code for at least two programmable DSPs from certain dataflow descriptions of systems.

The Ptolemy project continues to use Ptolemy Classic occasionally as a laboratory for experimenting with models of computation, but most of our work has shifted to a new Java-based environment called Ptolemy II. There remains an extensive network of active users, many of whom provide informal support. Our own informal support continues, including most recently a port to Windows NT 4.0.

Ptolemy II is a set of Java packages supporting heterogeneous, concurrent modeling and design. Its kernel package supports clustered hierarchical graphs, which are collections of entities and relations between those entities. Its actor package extends the kernel so that entities have functionality and can communicate via the relations. Its domains extend the actor package by imposing models of computation on the interaction between entities. Examples of models of computation include discrete-event systems, dataflow, process networks, synchronous/reactive systems, and communicating sequential processes. Ptolemy II includes a number of support packages, such as graph, providing graph-theoretic manipulations, math, providing matrix and vector math and signal processing functions, plot, providing visual display of data, data, providing a type system, data encapsulation and an expression parser, etc.

Ptolemy Classic and Ptolemy II can be found on the Ptolemy Website.

Software Available at:
    http://ptolemy.eecs.berkeley.edu

Documentation:

1. Ptolemy User's Manual. Available separately for $30.00.

Additional Documentation Available:

1. Programmer's Manual. A guide to extending Ptolemy, writing new stars, etc. $30.00
2. Kernel Manual. This manual explains the details of the Ptolemy kernel for advanced Ptolemy development work. $30.00
3. E. A. Lee and D. G. Messerschmitt, "An Overview of the Ptolemy Project," unpublished manuscript, June 11, 1992. $5.00
4. J. Buck, S. Ha, E. A. Lee, and D. G. Messerschmitt, "Ptolemy: A Framework for Simulating and Prototyping Heterogeneous Systems," invited paper, Int. J. of Computer Simulation, Vol. 4, April 1994, pp. 155-182. $10.00

Special Licensing/Distribution Restrictions: The standard licensing agreement for Gnu software applies to the Gnu software that is included on the tape. This agreement is available from the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139.