Using HYPER to teach datapath design techniques in an ASIC design course

Abstract

HYPER is a high level synthesis tool available from UC Berkeley for real-time, datapath intensive architectures such as those found in digital signal processing and video imaging applications. We have used HYPER as an adjunct tool in our ASIC design course for illustrating area versus time versus power tradeoffs in datapath design. These design tradeoffs can be explored via HYPER's wide range of transformation capabilities which include pipelining, retiming, constant multiplication expansion, time-loop unrolling and various algebraic law transformations.<>