SystemC channels connect modules together: serve as wiring (and more).
Predefined channels include buffer, fifo, signal, mutex, semaphore and clock.
RTL-style compute/commit is provided by the SystemC signal channel.
A signal is an abstract (templated) data type that has a current and next value.
Signal reads are of the current value. Writes are to the next value.
int nv; // nv is a simple c variable (POD)
sc_out < int > data; // data and mysig are signals (non-POD)
sc_signal < int > mysig; //
...
nv += 1;
data = nv;
mysig = nv;
printf("Before nv=%i, %i %i\n'', nv, data.read(), mysig.read());
wait(10, SC_NS);
printf("After nv=%i, %i %i\n'', nv, data.read(), mysig.read());
...
Before nv=96, 95 95
After nv=96, 96 96
When the scheduler blocks with no more events in the current time step, the pending new values are committed to the visible current values.