Presentation of the ODETTE synthesis
tool
Language Reference Manual - specification
of input language subset supported by the ODETTE synthesis tool
Guidelines for using ODETTE Synthesiser
The overall ODETTE synthesis process is not supported by a single stand-alone
tool but it is based on a tool suite.
Synthesis process starts from a OSSS hardware specification based on an
extended SystemC(TM) synthesis subset containing object-oriented language
features of C++. Such input specification is transformed into an intermediate
format by a SystemC(TM) front-end.
After that a synthesis tool developed by OFFIS processes this intermediate
format, transforms all object-oriented constructs into behavioural equivalent
constructs at a lower level of abstraction and generates synthesisable SystemC(TM)
or VHDL code at RT or behavioural level
The generated SystemC(TM) or VHDL code can be further processed with common
logic synthesis tools.
Figure 1: Fuctionality of the ODETTE
synthesis tool
The ODETTE Synthesiser is one of the major results of the ODETTE project.
Synthesis means here high level synthesis on top of the existing tools like
the CoCentric® SystemC Compiler or Behavioural Compiler®, which
are still necessary to perform behavioural and logic synthesis.
The ODETTE Synthesiser itself is meant to provide the functionality to
translate an object-oriented hardware model represented in an intermediate
file format into a behavioural equivalent model without object-oriented
constructs. The resulting model yields the same simulation results as the
input model and is capable of being processed by backend-synthesis tools.
The synthesis process performed by the ODETTE synthesis tool consists
of basically three different phases:
Analysis
The analysis-phase collects information, which is needed in the following
optimisation and translation phases. For the optimisation phase for instance
the following information has to be collected:
Optimisation
The optimisation-phase can apply information collected in analysis phase
to:
Translation
In general the translation-phase needs the following information to perform
translation of object-oriented constructs:
Actually Implemented
Functionality
The ODETTE Synthesiser is in advanced prototype stage. A lot of features
have been implemented up to now and the software in its actual state meets
the requirement to be capable of synthesising an object-oriented hardware
description written in object-oriented SystemC(TM).
The final prototype supports all object-oriented SystemC(TM) features
and generates behavioural SystemC(TM) code that can be simulated as well
as be synthesised with the CoCentric® SystemC(TM) Compiler.
The short overview of the supported features at the time of writing this
document is given in the following:
User interface
Optimisations
Synthesis
Code generation
Due to the flexible architecture of the synthesiser, a lot of additional
features and support for certain constructs that have not been implemented
yet, can be easily added to the tool. These enhancements even include support
of additional constructs or data types that have not been regarded for synthesis
and for the synthesisable input language subset in the first place.
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