Compilation from Matlab to process networks realised in FPGA

Abstract

Compaan is a software tool capable of automatically translating nested loop programs, written in Matlab, into parallel Kahn process network descriptions suitable for implementation in hardware. In this paper we present a tool for converting these process networks into FPGA implementations. The QR decomposition algorithm is used to demonstrate the capability of the tool to quickly generate high performance parallel implementations. This allows us to rapidly explore a range of transformations, such as loop unrolling and skewing, to generate a circuit that meets the requirements of a particular application. We present results showing how the control logic complexity and number of clock cycles vary with these transformations.