Design Interfaces for High-Level Synthesis: Library Modelling, Netlist Generation and Visualisation

From bibtex.

Abstract

In the fast growing field of high-level synthesis, very little attention has been paid to the areas where core synthesis tools must interact with their immediate environment. Library modelling, netlist generation and design visualisation are the three interfaces that have been neglected at the expense of advances in core synthesis tools. This thesis addresses this problem by looking at these primary interfaces and developing the ideas and tools that are needed to provide significant improvements over and above interfaces used by existing systems. Most of the results of this work has been embodied in the development of the SAGE high-level synthesis system, whose most significant difference between existing highlevel synthesis systems is that the electronic design engineer is able to direct the process of synthesis to a very fine degree of granularity. The main vehicle that has helped achieve this is the visibility of design information through graphical representations with which a designer is able to directly interact. This is in stark contrast to the purely automatic approaches of many synthesis systems, whose only support in heading towards the desired solution tends to be in the form of restarting a synthesis session from scratch. As well as the interfaces themselves, support tools in the form of sound software building blocks combined with software frameworks around which solid interfaces can be built are equally important. Without them, the interfaces would be concepts without proof in reality. Consequently, an equally important problem that this thesis addresses is the development of the necessary tools that can ensure this can happen.