Mentor Graphics publishes high-level synthesis reference book

WILSONVILLE, USA: Mentor Graphics Corp. has announced the availability of the High-level Synthesis Blue Book, by Michael Fingeroff, technical marketing engineer in the High-level Synthesis (HLS) group at Mentor.

The High-level Synthesis Blue Book is a comprehensive guide for designing hardware using C++ and is written for hardware and system designers who are currently using, moving, or plan¬ning to move to a high-level synthesis design environment that lets them reduce the time to verified RTL.

The High-level Synthesis Blue Book explains the fundamentals of high-level synthesis and the essential principles of C-based hardware design, progressing from simple concepts such as sequential logic design, to more complicated topics such as memory architecture and hierarchical sub-system design. All the concepts presented in the book have practical application for developing hardware, and are illustrative independent of whether a designer is working in pure ANSI C++ or in SystemC.

The concepts are thoroughly illustrated with numerous code examples and rich supporting graphics of hardware and timing dia¬grams. Starting from simple practical cases, the examples ultimately translate to much larger, more complex designs typical of today’s multi-core SoC designs. On completion of reading the High-level Synthesis Blue Book, a designer should be well on the way to becoming an expert in using high-level synthesis.

“After talking with hundreds of customers using HLS tools, and many RTL designers wanting to move to HLS, we decided there were obvious things we could do to help accelerate the adoption and use of high-level synthesis technology,” said Simon Bloch, vice president and general manager, Design and Synthesis division at Mentor.

“The High-level Synthesis Blue Book provides a firm foundation for writing high-quality synthesizable C++ code including recommendations for achieving superior quality of results in hardware and good programming practices to ensure "clean" code that passes compilation, execution, and RTL/C++ co-verification.”

The release of the High-level Synthesis Blue Book is just one of the many activities engaged in by Mentor to help hardware designer adopt HLS technology. Other programs include an active HLS silicon vendor program, as demonstrated by the Catapult C tool support for TSMC RF 11, the certification of multiple EDA vendor ESL flows, consulting services, extensive training, involvement in standards and a robust university program.