A technique for dynamic high-level exploration during behavioral-partitioning for multi-device architectures

TLDR: A novel technique to perform dynamic high-level exploration of a behavioral specification that is being partitioned for a multi-device architecture that effectively satisfies the global latency constraint on the entire design, as well as the area constraints on the individual partition segments.

Abstract: This paper presents a novel technique to perform dynamic high-level exploration of a behavioral specification that is being partitioned for a multi-device architecture. The technique, unlike in traditional HLS, performs a global search on the four-dimensional design space formed by multiple partition segments of the behavior. Hence, the proposed technique effectively satisfies the global latency constraint on the entire design, as well as the area constraints on the individual partition segments. Since the technique is based on a rigorous exploration model, it employs an efficient low-complexity heuristic instead of an exhaustive search. We have provided a number of results by integrating the exploration technique with two popular partitioning algorithms: (i) simulated annealing and (ii) Fiduccia-Mattheyses. The proposed technique is highly effective in guiding any partitioning algorithm to a constraint satisfying solution, and in a fairly short execution time. At tight constraint values, the proposed technique has the ability to generate solutions that do not exist in search space of traditional HLS exploration techniques.