C-based HLS Coding for Software Designers

Course Description

C-based coding is increasingly used for the modeling and high-level synthesis of hardware components. This course provides software engineers with sufficient knowledge of FPGA hardware to efficiently code for high-level synthesis. Learn the high-level synthesis best practices, methodology, and subtleties of C-based coding for hardware modeling, synthesis, and verification.

Release Date

Sept 2012

Level

DSP 3

Training Duration

1 Day

Who Should Attend?

Software engineers looking to utilize high-level synthesis

Prerequisites

• C, C++, or SystemC knowledge
• Software design experience

Software Tools

• Vivado™ System Edition 2012.2

Hardware

• Architecture: Zynq™-7000 All Programmable SoC and 7 series FPGAs*
• Demo board: None

* This course focuses on the Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC and 7 series FPGA architectures. Check with your local Authorized Training Provider for the specifics of the in-class lab board or other customizations.

Skills Gained

After completing this comprehensive training, you will know how to:

• Describe the difference between software programming and hardware design
• Identify the fundamental principles of hardware design
• Model and simulate hardware components using C
• Code hardware components in C for high-level synthesis

Course Outline

Day 1

• Introduction to Hardware Design for Software Designers
• Lab 1: Analyze a Simple Top-Level Hardware Design
• C-based Algorithmic Coding for Hardware
• Lab 2: High-Level Synthesis of a C Model
• C-based Test Bench Coding
• Lab 3: Creating a C-based Test Bench

Lab Descriptions

• Lab 1: Analyze a Simple Top-Level Hardware Design – Analyze a top-level, two-frequency pulse width modulator (PWM) hardware system. Identify and analyze hardware design components, parallel flow, and control.
• Lab 2: High-Level Synthesis of C Model – Use various techniques and directives in Vivado HLS to improve design performance. The design under consideration accepts an image in a (custom) RGB format, converts it to the Y’UV color space, and applies a filter to the Y’UV image and converts it back to RGB.
• Lab 3: Creating a C-based Test Bench – Develop a verification environment used for testing a C-based design and verification in Vivado HLS. The design under consideration is the same design used in the previous lab, a Y’UV filter.