Canonical Body - 2022.1 English

Inside the canonical region, the canonical body should follow these guidelines:

1. Use a local, non-static scalar or array/pointer variable, or local static stream variable. A local variable is declared inside the function body (for dataflow in a function) or loop body (for dataflow inside a loop).
2. A sequence of function calls that pass data forward (with no feedback), from a function to one that is lexically later, under the following conditions:
   1. Variables (except scalar) can have only one reading process and one writing process.
   2. Use write before read (producer before consumer) if you are using local variables, which then become channels.
   3. Use read before write (consumer before producer) if you are using function arguments. Any intra-body anti-dependencies must be preserved by the design.
   4. Function return type must be void.
   5. No loop-carried dependencies among different processes via variables.
      • Inside the canonical loop (i.e., values written by one iteration and read by a following one).
      • Among successive calls to the top function (i.e., inout argument written by one iteration and read by the following iteration).
   6. No control whatsoever is supported inside a dataflow region, except for function calls (that define processes).
      • No conditional, no loop, no return, no goto, no throw.
      • The only control supported around dataflow is:

        • Simple for loop, with unsigned integer induction variable initialized to 0, incremented by 1, and compared either with a non-negative constant or with an unsigned input of the function containing the dataflow-in-loop without any other statement in the function containing dataflow in loop, except for variable declarations. Typically only streams used in the loop body can be declared at that level.