How AXI4-Stream is Implemented - 2021.1 English

The AXI4-Stream interface is implemented as a struct type in Vitis HLS and has the following signature (defined in ap_axi_sdata.h):

template <typename T, size_t WUser, size_t WId, size_t WDest> struct axis { .. };

Where:

T

Stream data type

WUser

Width of the TUSER signal

WId

Width of the TID signal

WDest

Width of the TDest signal

When the stream data type (T) are simple integer types, there are two predefined types of AXI4-Stream implementations available:

• A signed implementation of the AXI4-Stream class (or more simply ap_axis<Wdata, WUser, WId, WDest>)

  hls::axis<ap_int<WData>, WUser, WId, WDest>

• An unsigned implementation of the AXI4-Stream class (or more simply ap_axiu<WData, WUser, WId, WDest>)

  hls::axis<ap_uint<WData>, WUser, WId, WDest>

The value specified for the WUser, WId, and WDest template parameters controls the usage of side-channel signals in the AXI4-Stream interface.

When the hls::axis class is used, the generated RTL will typically contain the actual data signal TDATA, and the following additional signals: TVALID, TREADY, TKEEP, TSTRB, TLAST, TUSER, TID, and TDEST.

TVALID, TREADY, and TLAST are necessary control signals for the AXI4-Stream protocol. TKEEP, TSTRB, TUSER, TID, and TDEST signals are special signals that can be used to pass around additional bookkeeping data.