Intel® High Level Synthesis Compiler Pro Edition: User Guide

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ID 683456
Date 10/04/2021
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Document Table of Contents
Document Table of Contents x
1. Intel® High Level Synthesis Compiler Pro Edition User Guide 2. Overview of the Intel® High Level Synthesis (HLS) Compiler Pro Edition 3. Creating a High-Level Synthesis Component and Testbench 4. Verifying the Functionality of Your Design 5. Optimizing and Refining Your Component 6. Verifying Your IP with Simulation 7. Synthesize your Component IP with Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition 8. Integrating your IP into a System A. Reviewing the High-Level Design Reports (report.html) B. Intel® HLS Compiler Pro Edition Restrictions C. Intel® HLS Compiler Pro Edition User Guide Archives D. Document Revision History for Intel® HLS Compiler Pro Edition User Guide
2. Overview of the Intel® High Level Synthesis (HLS) Compiler Pro Edition x
2.1. High Level Synthesis Design Flow 2.2. The Project Directory
3. Creating a High-Level Synthesis Component and Testbench x
3.1. Intel® HLS Compiler Pro Edition Compiler-Defined Preprocessor Macros
5. Optimizing and Refining Your Component x
5.1. The High-Level Design Reports
6. Verifying Your IP with Simulation x
6.1. Generation of the Verification Testbench Executable 6.2. Debugging during Verification 6.3. High-Throughput Simulation (Asynchronous Component Calls) Using Enqueue Function Calls
6.3. High-Throughput Simulation (Asynchronous Component Calls) Using Enqueue Function Calls x
6.3.1. Execution Model 6.3.2. Comparison of Explicit and Enqueued Function Calls
8. Integrating your IP into a System x
8.1. Adding the HLS Compiler-Generated IP into an Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition Project 8.2. Adding the HLS Compiler-Generated IP into a Platform Designer System
A. Reviewing the High-Level Design Reports (report.html) x
A.1. Reviewing the Summary Report A.2. Reviewing Component Architecture A.3. Reviewing Factors That Affect Throughput A.4. Reviewing Component Area Usage A.5. Accessing HLD FPGA Reports in JSON Format
A.2. Reviewing Component Architecture x
A.2.1. System Viewer A.2.2. Function Memory Viewer A.2.3. Schedule Viewer (Beta)
A.2.1. System Viewer x
A.2.1.1. Reviewing System Information A.2.1.2. Reviewing Function Information A.2.1.3. Reviewing Block Information A.2.1.4. Reviewing Cluster Information
A.2.1.2. Reviewing Function Information x
A.2.1.2.1. Reviewing Component Interfaces A.2.1.2.2. Reviewing Loops and Blocks in Your Component or Task
A.3. Reviewing Factors That Affect Throughput x
A.3.1. Loop Analysis Report A.3.2. Loops Viewer (Alpha) A.3.3. Verification Statistics Report
1. Intel® High Level Synthesis Compiler Pro Edition User Guide
2. Overview of the Intel® High Level Synthesis (HLS) Compiler Pro Edition
3. Creating a High-Level Synthesis Component and Testbench
4. Verifying the Functionality of Your Design
5. Optimizing and Refining Your Component
6. Verifying Your IP with Simulation
7. Synthesize your Component IP with Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition
8. Integrating your IP into a System
A. Reviewing the High-Level Design Reports (report.html)
B. Intel® HLS Compiler Pro Edition Restrictions
C. Intel® HLS Compiler Pro Edition User Guide Archives
D. Document Revision History for Intel® HLS Compiler Pro Edition User Guide

2. Overview of the Intel® High Level Synthesis (HLS) Compiler Pro Edition

The Intel® High Level Synthesis (HLS) Compiler parses your design and compiles it to an x86-64 object or RTL code optimized for Intel® FPGA device families. It also creates an executable testbench. Use the x86-64 object to quickly test and debug the function of your design.

You can use the same testbench to verify your design both when it is compiled to x86-64 instructions or to RTL.

The Intel® HLS Compiler Pro Edition is command-line compatible with g++, and supports most of the g++ compiler flags. See the Intel® High Level Synthesis Compiler Reference Manual for a full list of compiler flags.

The Intel® HLS Compiler Pro Edition recognizes the same file name extensions as g++, namely .c, .C, .cc, .cpp, .CPP, .c++, .cp, and .cxx. The compiler treats all of these file types as C++. The compiler does not explicitly support C, other than as a subset of C++.

Important: The Intel® HLS Compiler Pro Edition treats all input files as C++17. The compiler does not support files conforming to newer C++ standards.
When you target the compilation to an FPGA, the Intel® HLS Compiler outputs an executable and a project directory. The default executable is a.out on Linux and a.exe on Windows. The default project directory is a.prj, and it contains the following outputs:
  • Generated IP
  • High-Level Design Reports (report.html)
  • Verification testbench files
  • Quartus project that you can use to accurately estimate area requirements and fMAX for your design.

To specify the name of the compiler output, include the -o <result> option in your i++ command, where <result> is the name of the executable. This command creates a project directory called <result>.prj.

Running the executable file runs your testbench. When you target the compilation to an x86-64 architecture, the output executable runs your design on the CPU like a regular C++ program. The output executable runs very quickly compared to running a simulation of your component RTL. When you target the compilation to an FPGA architecture, the output executable simulates your component RTL. This simulation can take a long time to run.

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