High-Level Synthesis


Book Description

This book presents an excellent collection of contributions addressing different aspects of high-level synthesis from both industry and academia. It includes an overview of available EDA tool solutions and their applicability to design problems.




A Parallel Algorithm Synthesis Procedure for High-Performance Computer Architectures


Book Description

Despite five decades of research, parallel computing remains an exotic, frontier technology on the fringes of mainstream computing. Its much-heralded triumph over sequential computing has yet to materialize. This is in spite of the fact that the processing needs of many signal processing applications continue to eclipse the capabilities of sequential computing. The culprit is largely the software development environment. Fundamental shortcomings in the development environment of many parallel computer architectures thwart the adoption of parallel computing. Foremost, parallel computing has no unifying model to accurately predict the execution time of algorithms on parallel architectures. Cost and scarce programming resources prohibit deploying multiple algorithms and partitioning strategies in an attempt to find the fastest solution. As a consequence, algorithm design is largely an intuitive art form dominated by practitioners who specialize in a particular computer architecture. This, coupled with the fact that parallel computer architectures rarely last more than a couple of years, makes for a complex and challenging design environment. To navigate this environment, algorithm designers need a road map, a detailed procedure they can use to efficiently develop high performance, portable parallel algorithms. The focus of this book is to draw such a road map. The Parallel Algorithm Synthesis Procedure can be used to design reusable building blocks of adaptable, scalable software modules from which high performance signal processing applications can be constructed. The hallmark of the procedure is a semi-systematic process for introducing parameters to control the partitioning and scheduling of computation and communication. This facilitates the tailoring of software modules to exploit different configurations of multiple processors, multiple floating-point units, and hierarchical memories. To showcase the efficacy of this procedure, the book presents three case studies requiring various degrees of optimization for parallel execution.




High-level Synthesis


Book Description

Are you an RTL or system designer that is currently using, moving, or planning to move to an HLS design environment? Finally, a comprehensive guide for designing hardware using C++ is here. Michael Fingeroff's High-Level Synthesis Blue Book presents the most effective C++ synthesis coding style for achieving high quality RTL. Master a totally new design methodology for coding increasingly complex designs! This book provides a step-by-step approach to using C++ as a hardware design language, including an introduction to the basics of HLS using concepts familiar to RTL designers. Each chapter provides easy-to-understand C++ examples, along with hardware and timing diagrams where appropriate. The book progresses from simple concepts such as sequential logic design to more complicated topics such as memory architecture and hierarchical sub-system design. Later chapters bring together many of the earlier HLS design concepts through their application in simplified design examples. These examples illustrate the fundamental principles behind C++ hardware design, which will translate to much larger designs. Although this book focuses primarily on C and C++ to present the basics of C++ synthesis, all of the concepts are equally applicable to SystemC when describing the core algorithmic part of a design. On completion of this book, readers should be well on their way to becoming experts in high-level synthesis.




Parallel Algorithms for Irregular Problems: State of the Art


Book Description

Efficient parallel solutions have been found to many problems. Some of them can be obtained automatically from sequential programs, using compilers. However, there is a large class of problems - irregular problems - that lack efficient solutions. IRREGULAR 94 - a workshop and summer school organized in Geneva - addressed the problems associated with the derivation of efficient solutions to irregular problems. This book, which is based on the workshop, draws on the contributions of outstanding scientists to present the state of the art in irregular problems, covering aspects ranging from scientific computing, discrete optimization, and automatic extraction of parallelism. Audience: This first book on parallel algorithms for irregular problems is of interest to advanced graduate students and researchers in parallel computer science.




Parallel Algorithms and Architectures for DSP Applications


Book Description

Over the past few years, the demand for high speed Digital Signal Proces sing (DSP) has increased dramatically. New applications in real-time image processing, satellite communications, radar signal processing, pattern recogni tion, and real-time signal detection and estimation require major improvements at several levels; algorithmic, architectural, and implementation. These perfor mance requirements can be achieved by employing parallel processing at all levels. Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) technology supports and provides a good avenue for parallelism. Parallelism offers efficient sohitions to several problems which can arise in VLSI DSP architectures such as: 1. Intermediate data communication and routing: several DSP algorithms, such as FFT, involve excessive data routing and reordering. Parallelism is an efficient mechanism to minimize the silicon cost and speed up the pro cessing time of the intermediate middle stages. 2. Complex DSP applications: the required computation is almost doubled. Parallelism will allow two similar channels processing at the same time. The communication between the two channels has to be minimized. 3. Applicatilm specific systems: this emerging approach should achieve real-time performance in a cost-effective way. 4. Testability and fault tolerance: reliability has become a required feature in most of DSP systems. To achieve such property, the involved time overhead is significant. Parallelism may be the solution to maintain ac ceptable speed performance.




Architecting High-Performance Embedded Systems


Book Description

Explore the complete process of developing systems based on field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), including the design of electronic circuits and the construction and debugging of prototype embedded devices Key FeaturesLearn the basics of embedded systems and real-time operating systemsUnderstand how FPGAs implement processing algorithms in hardwareDesign, construct, and debug custom digital systems from scratch using KiCadBook Description Modern digital devices used in homes, cars, and wearables contain highly sophisticated computing capabilities composed of embedded systems that generate, receive, and process digital data streams at rates up to multiple gigabits per second. This book will show you how to use Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and high-speed digital circuit design to create your own cutting-edge digital systems. Architecting High-Performance Embedded Systems takes you through the fundamental concepts of embedded systems, including real-time operation and the Internet of Things (IoT), and the architecture and capabilities of the latest generation of FPGAs. Using powerful free tools for FPGA design and electronic circuit design, you'll learn how to design, build, test, and debug high-performance FPGA-based IoT devices. The book will also help you get up to speed with embedded system design, circuit design, hardware construction, firmware development, and debugging to produce a high-performance embedded device – a network-based digital oscilloscope. You'll explore techniques such as designing four-layer printed circuit boards with high-speed differential signal pairs and assembling the board using surface-mount components. By the end of the book, you'll have a solid understanding of the concepts underlying embedded systems and FPGAs and will be able to design and construct your own sophisticated digital devices. What you will learnUnderstand the fundamentals of real-time embedded systems and sensorsDiscover the capabilities of FPGAs and how to use FPGA development toolsLearn the principles of digital circuit design and PCB layout with KiCadConstruct high-speed circuit board prototypes at low costDesign and develop high-performance algorithms for FPGAsDevelop robust, reliable, and efficient firmware in CThoroughly test and debug embedded device hardware and firmwareWho this book is for This book is for software developers, IoT engineers, and anyone who wants to understand the process of developing high-performance embedded systems. You'll also find this book useful if you want to learn about the fundamentals of FPGA development and all aspects of firmware development in C and C++. Familiarity with the C language, digital circuits, and electronic soldering is necessary to get started.




Applied Parallel Computing: Advanced Scientific Computing


Book Description

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Applied Parallel Computing, PARA 2002, held in Espoo, Finland, in June 2002. The 50 revised full papers presented together with nine keynote lectures were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the proceedings. The papers are organized in topical sections on data mining and knowledge discovery, parallel program development, practical experience in parallel computing, computer science, numerical algorithms with hierarchical memory optimization, numerical methods and algorithms, cluster computing, grid and network technologies, and physics and applications.




FPGA-based Implementation of Signal Processing Systems


Book Description

Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are an increasingly popular technology for implementing digital signal processing (DSP) systems. By allowing designers to create circuit architectures developed for the specific applications, high levels of performance can be achieved for many DSP applications providing considerable improvements over conventional microprocessor and dedicated DSP processor solutions. The book addresses the key issue in this process specifically, the methods and tools needed for the design, optimization and implementation of DSP systems in programmable FPGA hardware. It presents a review of the leading-edge techniques in this field, analyzing advanced DSP-based design flows for both signal flow graph- (SFG-) based and dataflow-based implementation, system on chip (SoC) aspects, and future trends and challenges for FPGAs. The automation of the techniques for component architectural synthesis, computational models, and the reduction of energy consumption to help improve FPGA performance, are given in detail. Written from a system level design perspective and with a DSP focus, the authors present many practical application examples of complex DSP implementation, involving: high-performance computing e.g. matrix operations such as matrix multiplication; high-speed filtering including finite impulse response (FIR) filters and wave digital filters (WDFs); adaptive filtering e.g. recursive least squares (RLS) filtering; transforms such as the fast Fourier transform (FFT). FPGA-based Implementation of Signal Processing Systems is an important reference for practising engineers and researchers working on the design and development of DSP systems for radio, telecommunication, information, audio-visual and security applications. Senior level electrical and computer engineering graduates taking courses in signal processing or digital signal processing shall also find this volume of interest.




Algorithms and Parallel VLSI Architectures III


Book Description

A comprehensive overview of the current evolution of research in algorithms, architectures and compilation for parallel systems is provided by this publication.The contributions focus specifically on domains where embedded systems are required, either oriented to application-specific or to programmable realisations. These are crucial in domains such as audio, telecom, instrumentation, speech, robotics, medical and automotive processing, image and video processing, TV, multimedia, radar and sonar.The book will be of particular interest to the academic community because of the detailed descriptions of research results presented. In addition, many contributions feature the "real-life" applications that are responsible for driving research and the impact of their specific characteristics on the methodologies is assessed.The publication will also be of considerable value to senior design engineers and CAD managers in the industrial arena, who wish either to anticipate the evolution of commercially available design tools or to utilize the presented concepts in their own R&D programmes.




The VLSI Handbook


Book Description

For the new millenium, Wai-Kai Chen introduced a monumental reference for the design, analysis, and prediction of VLSI circuits: The VLSI Handbook. Still a valuable tool for dealing with the most dynamic field in engineering, this second edition includes 13 sections comprising nearly 100 chapters focused on the key concepts, models, and equations. Written by a stellar international panel of expert contributors, this handbook is a reliable, comprehensive resource for real answers to practical problems. It emphasizes fundamental theory underlying professional applications and also reflects key areas of industrial and research focus. WHAT'S IN THE SECOND EDITION? Sections on... Low-power electronics and design VLSI signal processing Chapters on... CMOS fabrication Content-addressable memory Compound semiconductor RF circuits High-speed circuit design principles SiGe HBT technology Bipolar junction transistor amplifiers Performance modeling and analysis using SystemC Design languages, expanded from two chapters to twelve Testing of digital systems Structured for convenient navigation and loaded with practical solutions, The VLSI Handbook, Second Edition remains the first choice for answers to the problems and challenges faced daily in engineering practice.