The MINIMALIST framework consists of several key pieces: core data structures, a class and algorithm library, and an extensible interpreter, implemented in roughly 45,000 lines of C++ (including several of the core tools, e.g. HFMIN and CHASM).
The MINIMALIST framework incorporates a simple set of C++ classes to represent the original burst-mode specification. Early synthesis steps such as state minimization and state encoding simply transform or place annotations on these structures. As a result, additional steps or transformations are easily accommodated.
To assist in implementing new synthesis algorithms, MINIMALIST offers class libraries for manipulating both asynchronous burst-mode specifications, two-level logic (hazard- and non-hazard-free), dichotomies, unate and binate covering problem instances, arbitrary-length bitstrings, and the like. To facilitate interfacing to external programs, a small number of basic translators to common formats (e.g. Berkeley PLA or BLIF) is incorporated.
Finally, MINIMALIST provides a shell-like interpreter, extensible with commands written in C or C++. The interpreter supports user-defined shell functions, on-line help, command- and filename-completion, variables, control constructs (loops, conditionals), arithmetic, external process invocation, input/output redirection, and the like. Also, functionality can be augmented by dynamically-loaded code, without having to re-link the executable.
The result is a uniquely flexible, potent context for integrating synthesis tools, that we find lacking in existing packages [19][34].