When synthesis completes, Vitis HLS generates a Synthesis Summary report for the top-level function that opens automatically in the information pane.
The specific sections of the Synthesis Summary are detailed below.
General Information
Provides information on when the report was generated, the version of the software used, the project name, the solution name and target flow, and the technology details.
Performance & Resource Estimates
The Performance Estimate columns report the latency and initiation interval for the top-level function and any sub-blocks instantiated in the top-level. Each sub-function called at this level in the C/C++ source is an instance in the generated RTL block, unless the sub-function was in-lined into the top-level function using the INLINE pragma or directive, or automatically in-lined.
The Slack column displays any timing issues in the implementation.
The Latency column displays the number of cycles it takes to produce the output, and is also displayed in time (ns). The Initiation Interval is the number of clock cycles before new inputs can be applied. In the absence of any PIPELINE directives, the latency is one cycle less than the initiation interval (the next input is read after the final output is written).
The Iteration Latency is the latency of a single iteration for a loop. The Trip Count column displays the number of iterations a specific loop makes in the implemented hardware. This reflects any unrolling of the loop in hardware.
The Resource Estimate columns of the report indicates the estimated resources needed to implement the software function in the RTL code. Estimates of the BRAM, DSP, FFs, and LUTs are provided.
HW Interfaces
The HW Interfaces section of the synthesis report provides tables for the different hardware interfaces generated during synthesis. The type of hardware interfaces generated by the tool depends on the flow target specified by the solution, as well as any INTERFACE pragmas or directives applied to the code. In the following image, the solution targets the Vitis Kernel flow, and therefore generates AXI interfaces as required.
The following should be observed when reviewing these tables:
- Separate tables are provided for the different interfaces.
- Columns are provided to display different properties of the interface. For the M_AXI interface, these include the Data Width and Max Widen Bitwidth columns which indicate whether Automatic Port Width Resizing has occurred, and to what extent. In the example above, you can see that the port was widened to 512 bits from the 16 bits specified in the software.
- The Latency column displays the
latency of the interface:
- In an
ap_memory
interface, the column displays the read latency of the RAM resource driving the interface. - For an
m_axi
interface, the column displays the expected latency of the AXI4 interface, allowing the design to initiate a bus request a number of cycles (latency) before the read or write is expected.
- In an
- The Bundle column displays any specified bundle names from the INTERFACE pragma or directive.
- Additional columns display burst and read and write properties of the M_AXI interface as described in set_directive_interface.
SW I/O Information
Highlights how the function arguments from the C/C++ source is associated
with the port names in the generated RTL code. Additional details of the software
and hardware ports are provided as shown below. Notice that the SW argument is
expanded into multiple HW interfaces. For example, the input
argument is related to three HW interfaces, the m_axi
for data, and the s_axi_lite
for required control signals.
M_AXI Burst Information
In the M_AXI Burst Information section the Burst Summary table reports the successful
burst transfers, with a link to the associated source code. The reported burst
length refers to either max_read_burst_length
or
max_write_burst_length
and represents the number of data values
read/written during a burst transfer. For example, in a case where the input type is
integer (32 bits), and HLS auto-widens the interface to 512 bits, each burst
transfers 1024 integers. Because the widened interface can carry 16 integers at a
time, the result is 64 beat bursts. The Burst
Missed table reports why a particular burst transfer was
missed with a link to Guidance messages related to the burst failures to help with
resolution.