AXI4-Stream Interfaces without Side-Channels - 2021.2 English

An AXI4-Stream is used without side-channels when the function argument, ap_axis or ap_axiu data type, does not contain any AXI4 side-channel elements (that is, when the WUser, WId, and WDest parameters are set to 0). In the following example, both interfaces are implemented using an AXI4-Stream:

#include "ap_axi_sdata.h"
#include "hls_stream.h"

typedef ap_axiu<32, 0, 0, 0> trans_pkt;

void example(hls::stream< trans_pkt > &A, hls::stream< trans_pkt > &B)
{
#pragma HLS INTERFACE mode=axis port=A
#pragma HLS INTERFACE mode=axis port=B
    trans_pkt tmp;
    A.read(tmp);
    tmp.data += 5;
    B.write(tmp);
}

After synthesis, both arguments are implemented with a data port (TDATA) and the standard AXI4-Stream protocol ports, TVALID, TREADY, TKEEP, TLAST, and TSTRB, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 1. AXI4-Stream Interfaces without Side-Channels

Multiple variables can be combined into the same AXI4-Stream interface by using a struct, which is aggregated by Vitis HLS by default. Aggregating the elements of a struct into a single wide-vector, allows all elements of the struct to be implemented in the same AXI4-Stream interface.