Bridge: A High Level Synthesis System in Industry

In conventional approaches to high level synthesis, data-path allocation and data-path module binding are performed first, then followed by control-path allocation and control module binding. This proposal presents an innovative framework for high level synthesis; the framework first allocates the generic structure of both data and control paths, then the tasks of data and control module bindings proceed. This framework reduces much overhead in the synthesis process. In this system, a variable in a behavioral description can be either a storage element or a signal. In addition to the traditional data flow and control flow scheduling, the global optimizer also decides the attribute (signal or register) of each variable. Intelligent binding of the variables in a behavioral description to storage elements and signals facilitates tradeoffs between the number of cycles and the cycle period. Experimental data of the Intel 8251 description will be presented.