Designing high-quality hardware on a development effort budget: A study of the current state of high-level synthesis

摘要

High-level synthesis (HLS) promises high-quality hardware with minimal development effort. In this paper, we evaluate the current state-of-the-art in HLS and design techniques based on software references and architecture references. We present a software reference study developing a JPEG encoder from pre-existing software, and an architecture reference study developing an AES block encryption module from scratch in SystemC and SystemVerilog based on a desired architecture. Additionally, we develop micro-benchmarks to demonstrate best-practices in C coding styles that produce high-quality hardware with minimal development effort. Finally, we suggest language, tool, and methodology improvements to improve upon the current state-of-the-art in HLS.