While transferring data from the host typically requires memory
mapped interfaces (m_axi) to access global
memory, or directly access host memory on some platforms, the
Vitis™
core development kit also
supports streaming data transfer between kernels. This lets you create
kernels that access data from the host system, and then stream it directly
to other kernels.
Consider the situation where one kernel is performing some part of the computation, and a second or third kernel completes the operation after receiving the data from the first kernel. With kernel-to-kernel streaming support, data can move directly from one kernel to another without having to transmit back through the global memory. This results in a significant performance improvement. Finally, the data can be passed back to the host application through global memory. An example of this can be found in the Mixed Kernels Design Tutorial with AXI Stream and Vitis on GitHub.