The INTERFACE pragma specifies the physical adapters for the kernel C ports and how they attach to the platform during what’s referred to as “interface synthesis” in HLS.
These physical adapters and their associated RTL implementation are derived from the following:
Any function-level protocol that is specified: Function-level protocols, also called block-level I/O protocols, provide signals to control when the function starts operation, and indicate when function operation ends, is idle, and is ready for new inputs. The implementation of a function-level protocol is: Specified by the
values ap_ctrl_none, ap_ctrl_hs or ap_ctrl_chain. The ap_ctrl_hs block-level I/O protocol is the default. Are associated with the function name. Function arguments: Each function argument can be specified to have its own port-level (I/O) interface protocol, such as valid handshake (ap_vld), or acknowledge handshake (ap_ack). Port-level interface protocols are created for each argument in the top-level function and the function return, if the function returns a value. The default I/O protocol created depends on the type of C argument. After the block-level protocol has been used to start the operation of the block, the port-level I/O protocols are used to sequence data into and out of the block.
Global variables accessed by the top-level function, and defined outside its scope:
If a global variable is accessed, but all read and write operations are local to the function, the resource is created in the RTL design. There is no need for an I/O port in the RTL. If the global variable is expected to be an external source or destination, specify its interface in a similar manner as standard function arguments. See the Examples below.
When the INTERFACE pragma is used on sub-functions, only the register option can be used. The
Specifying Burst Mode
When specifying burst-mode for interfaces, using the max_read_burst_length or max_write_burst_length options (as described in the Syntax section) there are limitations and related considerations that are derived from the AXI standard:
The burst length should be less than, or equal to 256 words per transaction, because ARLEN & AWLEN are 8 bits; the actual burst length is AxLEN+1. In total, less than 4 KB is transferred per burst transaction. Do not cross the 4 KB address boundary. The bus width is specified as a power of 2, between 32-bits and 512-bits (i.e. 32, 64, 128, 256, 512 bits) or in bytes: 4, 8, 16, 32, 64.
Given the 4 KB limit, the maximum burst length for a single transaction for a bus width of:
32-bits is 256 words for 1024 total bytes transferred per transaction.
64-bits is 256 words for 2048 total bytes transferred per transaction.
128-bits is 256 words for 4096 total bytes transferred per transaction.
256-bits is 128 words for 4096 total bytes transferred per transaction.
512-bits is 64 words for 4096 total bytes transferred per transaction.
Note: The actual transactions are design dependent, for example, pipelined accesses from a for-loop of 100 iterations when max_read_burst_length or max_write_burst_length is set to 128, will not fill the max burst length. However, if accesses are longer than the specified maximum burst length, some accesses will be split into smaller bursts.
For example, a pipelined for-loop with 100 accesses and max_read_burst_length or max_write_burst_length set to 64, will be split into 2 transactions, one of the max burst length (or 64) and one transaction of the remaining data (burst of length 36 words).