vhlsrs 0.0.91

Package to automate the synthesis of vivado HLS components

vhlsrs

It means Vivado HLS run synthesis.

This package contains a script that runs vivado synthesis in a (somewhat) reproducible way.

It also allow to search for the minimum pipeline depth design for a given clock period constrain.

Usage

Experience description

The experience to run should be described in a .ini.

A complete experiment description looks like :

[EXP_NAME]
comp_path=path/to/component/file.cpp
top_level_comp= Name of top level function
period= clock period in ns (float)
part= part code name (default is xc7k160tfbg484)
standard= c++ standard to use. (default is c++11)
includes=comma separated list of directories containing includes to use during the synthesis. optionnal.
defines=Key=comma separated list of key=value preprocessor macro that will be defined during synthesis
keep_env=True/False Should the synthesis environment be kept after the synthesis is performed. Default is False.
ip_lib= Name of the ip library to use when exporting the ip (optionnal)
ip_version= Version to use when exporting the ip (optionnal)
ip_descr= description that will be exported along the vivado ip (optionnal)
ip_vendor= vendor name for the exported vivado ip (optionnal)
latency= ltency constraint for the initial design (optionnal)
hdl= verilog|VHDL
no_pipeline=True|False if true the design will not be pipelined (default false)
no_inline=True|False if true the function call will not be inlined (default false)
ctrl_hs=True|False Block protocol will be ap_ctrl_hs if true, ap_ctrl_none else. Default false.
exp_type=hls|syn|impl until which phase is the experiment to be performed

Running a one shot synthesis

python -m vhlsrs impl [expdescr.ini]

will implement the experiments described in expdescr.ini either with a latency constraint if given or with the minimal latency estimated by the tool.

Minimizing the latency

As vivado HLS is sometimes not very good at timing estimation, it can lead to overpessimistic latency.

the python -m vhlsrs minimize [expdescr.ini]

will attempt to find the lowest pipeline depth that still respect the clock constraints by dichotomy. If a latency constraint is provided, it will start the exploration with a designed with this constraint. Otherwise, it will start the exploration with the latency estimated by the tool.