Tutorial on high-level synthesis

Abstract

High-level synthesis takes an abstract behavioral specification of a digital system and finds a register-transfer level structure that realizes the given behavior. In this tutorial we will examine the high-level synthesis task, showing how it can be decomposed into a number of distinct but not independent subtasks. Then we will present the techniques that have been developed for solving those subtasks. Finally, we will note those areas related to high-level synthesis that are still open problems.