LLMs In The High-Level Synthesis Design Flow


A new technical paper titled "Are LLMs Any Good for High-Level Synthesis?" was published by researchers at University of Arizona. Abstract "The increasing complexity and demand for faster, energy-efficient hardware designs necessitate innovative High-Level Synthesis (HLS) methodologies. This paper explores the potential of Large Language Models (LLMs) to streamline or replace the HLS proces... » read more

Fantastical Creatures


In my day job I work in the High-Level Synthesis group at Siemens EDA, specifically focusing on algorithm acceleration. But on the weekends, sometimes, I take on the role of amateur cryptozoologist. As many of you know, the main Siemens EDA campus sits in the shadow of Mt. Hood and the Cascade Mountain range. This is prime habitat for Sasquatch, also known as “Bigfoot”. This weekend, ar... » read more

High-Level Synthesis Propels Next-Gen AI Accelerators


Everything around you is getting smarter. Artificial intelligence is not just a data center application but will be deployed in all kinds of embedded systems that we interact with daily. We expect to talk to and gesture at them. We expect them to recognize and understand us. And we expect them to operate with just a little bit of common sense. This intelligence is making these systems not just ... » read more

How The Productivity Advantages Of High-Level Synthesis Can Improve IP Design, Verification, And Reuse


Engineering teams are under more pressure than ever before—systems on chip (SoCs) are growing more complex and design schedules are increasingly tighter. With its productivity advantages, high-level synthesis (HLS) has long been touted as part of the solution, but its sweet spot has traditionally been limited to datapath-centric blocks. Moreover, design productivity is only one part of ... » read more

Applying Machine Learning to EDA, FPGA Design Automation Tools


A technical paper titled “Application of Machine Learning in FPGA EDA Tool Development” was published by researchers at the University of Texas Dallas. Abstract: "With the recent advances in hardware technologies like advanced CPUs and GPUs and the large availability of open-source libraries, machine learning has penetrated various domains, including Electronics Design Automation (EDA). E... » read more

Advantages, Disadvantages, And Use Cases Of FPGAs


A technical paper titled “Data Processing with FPGAs on Modern Architectures” was published by researchers at ETH Zürich. Abstract: "Trends in hardware, the prevalence of the cloud, and the rise of highly demanding applications have ushered an era of specialization that is quickly changing the way data is processed at scale. These changes are likely to continue and accelerate in the next... » read more

Using Formal Verification To Optimize HLS-Produced Circuits (ETH Zurich)


A new technical paper titled "Eliminating Excessive Dynamism of Dataflow Circuits Using Model Checking" was published by researchers at ETH Zurich. Abstract "Recent HLS efforts explore the generation of dynamically scheduled, dataflow circuits from high-level code; their ability to adapt the schedule at runtime to particular data and control outcomes promises superior performance to standar... » read more

A Full-Stack Domain-Specific Overlay Generation Framework Verified On FPGA


A new technical paper titled "OverGen: Improving FPGA Usability through Domain-specific Overlay Generation" by researchers at UCLA and Chinese Academy of Sciences. "Our essential idea is to develop a hardware generation framework targeting a highly-customizable overlay, so that the abstraction gap can be lowered by tuning the design instance to applications of interest. We leverage and ext... » read more

The End Of Closed EDA


In a previous life, I was a technologist for a large EDA company. One of my primary responsibilities in that position involved talking to a lot of customers to identify their pain points, and what new tools we could develop that would ease their problems. You would think that would be an easy task, but it certainly was not the case. For example, if you ask a developer what their biggest frus... » read more

Designing for FPGA Accelerators


This research paper titled "High-Level Synthesis Hardware Design for FPGA-based Accelerators: Models, Methodologies, and Frameworks" was published by researchers at Università degli Studi di Trieste (Italy), Universidad Nacional de San Luis (Argentina), and the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (Italy). According to the paper's abstract, "This paper presents a survey ... » read more

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