Hardware/software co-compilation with the Nymble system

Abstract

The Nymble compiler system accepts C code, annotated by the user with partitioning directives, and translates the indicated parts into hardware accelerators for execution on FPGA-based reconfigurable computers. The interface logic between the remaining software parts and the accelerators is automatically created, taking into account details such as cache flushes and copying of FPGA-local memories to the shared main memory. The system also supports calls from hardware back into software, both for infrequent operations that do not merit hardware area, as well as for using operating system / library services such as memory management and I/O.