Increasing user interaction during high-level synthesis

Most high-level synthesis systems act as “black boxes”, with the user allowed minimal interaction during the synthesis process. To allow the user to take a more active role, using his or her creativity where appropriate, advances must be made in three key areas. Better metrics must be developed, to allow the user to quickly evaluate the quality of the design at various points in the synthesis process, and to identify developing problem areas in the design. Better interaction techniques must be devised to allow the user to observe, control, and interact with the synthesis tools. Finally, as a foundation for these metrics and synthesis tools, a well-designed graphical user interface must be developed, this interface must be able to display both small and large designs, and must support mechanisms to control the display complexity. These are three important issues to address in making high-level synthesis a practical design tool.