A Unified Lower Bound Estimation Technique for High-Level Synthesis

A Unified Lower Bound Estimation Technique for High-Level Synthesis The importance of effective lower bound estimation (LBE) techniques is well-established in HighLevel Synthesis (HLS), since it allows more efficient exploration of the design space while providing other HLS tools with the capability of predicting the effect of specific tools on the design space. Much of previous work has focused on LBE techniques that use very simple cost models which primarily focus on the functional unit resources. With the push towards sub-micron technologies, simple models that use functional unit resources alone are not accurate enough to allow effective design space exploration since the effects of storage and interconnect can indeed dominate the cost function. In this paper, we present an integrated approach aimed at predicting lower bounds on hardware resources needed to implement a behavioral description within a given amount of time. Our area cost model accounts for storage (register) and int..