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Which language(e.g. bluespec, impulseC, Handel-C, SystemC etc.) is the best for creating a high-level synthesis? 'Best' can be in terms of ease of learning, performance, etc.).

Discussion started by Muhammad Maiz Ghauri , on 08 January 01:12 PM

Replies

Eric Cigan, 2010-03-24 13:34:36

MathWorks recently established a section of mathworks.com for FPGA design tools that work with MATLAB and Simulink, with sections devoted to tools from FPGA vendors and EDA companies. If you are looking for information on these tools or are interested in trial software, please visit http://www.mathworks.com/fpga-design.

Brian Durwood, 2010-02-01 18:48:16

Hi Mr. Ghauri,

First, I work for Impulse and therefore am horribly biased. Second, all of the languages you mention are fine. I'd even throw Mitrion C into your search. Some of the selection criteria may be design domain dependent. Fancy way of saying, check each out and see which have examples that best match your application. Typically many engineers first modify a supplied example to see if they are comfortable with the syntax.

Now for a short blatant pitch for us.
Ease of learning - we've got a wide range of examples, a textbook Practical FPGA Programming in C, and some pretty easy to follow tutorials in image processing, fft, fir, data processing and encryption (US only).
Performance - They're all about as good as you are. You've got to be fairly clever about understanding refactoring uP C for machine parallelization. Expect a pretty iterative process.

If you've any interest in trying Impulse C out just email us from the site and we'll cut an eval license. Again, the other products you mention work well too.

Best,
Brian Durwood, Impulse

Hendrik, 2010-01-14 03:29:02

I hear good things about MyHdl (http://www.myhdl.org/), an open source Python package that lets you go from Python to silicon.
I personally still prefer VHDL for digital design.