Synthesis Summary - 2023.1 English

General Information

Provides information on when the report was generated, the version of the software used, the project name, the solution name and target flow, and the technology details.

Figure 1. Synthesis Summary Report

Timing Estimate

Displays a quick estimate of the timing specified by the solution, as explained in Specifying the Clock Frequency. This includes the Target clock period specified, and the period of Uncertainty. The clock period minus the uncertainty results in the Estimated clock period.

Performance & Resource Estimates

The Performance Estimate columns report the latency and initiation interval for the top-level function and any sub-blocks instantiated in the top-level. Each sub-function called at this level in the C/C++ source is an instance in the generated RTL block, unless the sub-function was in-lined into the top-level function using the INLINE pragma or directive, or automatically in-lined.

The Slack column displays any timing issues in the implementation.

The Latency column displays the number of cycles it takes to produce the output, and is also displayed in time (ns). The Initiation Interval is the number of clock cycles before new inputs can be applied. In the absence of any PIPELINE directives, the latency is one cycle less than the initiation interval (the next input is read after the final output is written).

The Iteration Latency is the latency of a single iteration for a loop. The Trip Count column displays the number of iterations a specific loop makes in the implemented hardware. This reflects any unrolling of the loop in hardware.

The Resource Estimate columns of the report indicates the estimated resources needed to implement the software function in the RTL code. Estimates of the BRAM, DSP, FFs, and LUTs are provided.

HW Interfaces

The HW Interfaces section of the synthesis report provides tables for the different hardware interfaces generated during synthesis. The type of hardware interfaces generated by the tool depends on the flow target specified by the solution, as well as any INTERFACE pragmas or directives applied to the code. In the following image, the solution targets the Vitis Kernel flow, and therefore generates AXI interfaces as required.

Figure 2. HW Interfaces

The following should be observed when reviewing these tables:

• Separate tables are provided for the different interfaces.
• Columns are provided to display different properties of the interface. For the M_AXI interface, these include the Data Width and Max Widen Bitwidth columns which indicate whether Automatic Port Width Resizing has occurred, and to what extent. In the example above, you can see that the port was widened to 512 bits from the 16 bits specified in the software.
• The Latency column displays the latency of the interface:
  • In an ap_memory interface, the column displays the read latency of the RAM resource driving the interface.
  • For an m_axi interface, the column displays the expected latency of the AXI4 interface, allowing the design to initiate a bus request a number of cycles (latency) before the read or write is expected.
• The Bundle column displays any specified bundle names from the INTERFACE pragma or directive.
• Additional columns display burst and read and write properties of the M_AXI interface as described in set_directive_interface.
• The Bit Fields column displays the bits used by an the registers in an s_axilite interface.

SW I/O Information

Highlights how the function arguments from the C/C++ source is associated with the port names in the generated RTL code. Additional details of the software and hardware ports are provided as shown below. Notice that the SW argument is expanded into multiple HW interfaces. For example, the input argument is related to three HW interfaces, the m_axi for data, and the s_axi_lite for required control signals.

Figure 3. SW I/O Information

M_AXI Burst Information

In the M_AXI Burst Information section the Burst Summary table reports the successful burst transfers, with a link to the associated source code. The reported burst length refers to either max_read_burst_length or max_write_burst_length and represents the number of data values read/written during a burst transfer. For example, in a case where the input type is integer (32 bits), and HLS auto-widens the interface to 512 bits, each burst transfers 1024 integers. Because the widened interface can carry 16 integers at a time, the result is 64 beat bursts. The Burst Missed table reports why a particular burst transfer was missed with a link to Guidance messages related to the burst failures to help with resolution.

Figure 4. M_AXI Burst Information

Bind Op and Bind Storage Reports

The Bind Op and Bind Storage reports are added to the Synthesis Summary report. Both reports can help you understand choices made by Vitis HLS when it maps operations to resources. The tool will map operations to the right resources with the right latency. You can influence this process by using the BIND_OP pragma or directive, and requesting a particular resource mapping and latency. The Bind Op report will show which of the mappings were automatically done versus those enforced by the use of a pragma. Similarly, the Bind Storage report shows the mappings of arrays to memory resources on the platform like BRAM/LUTRAM/URAM.

The Bind Op Report displays the implementation details of the kernel or IP. The hierarchy of the top-level function is displayed and variables are listed with any HLS pragmas or directives applied, the operation defined, the implementation used by the HLS tool, and any applied latency.

This report is useful for examining the programmable logic implementation details specified by the RTL design.

Figure 5. Synthesis Summary

As shown above, the Bind OP report highlights certain important characteristics in your design. Currently, it calls out the number of DSPs used in the design and shows in a hierarchy where these DSPs are used in the design. The table also highlights whether the particular resource allocation was done because of a user-specified pragma and if so, a "yes" entry will be present in the Pragma column. If no entry exists in the Pragma column, it means that the resource was auto inferred by the tool. The table also shows the RTL names of the resources allocated for each module in the user's design and you can hierarchy descend down the hierarchy to see the various resources.

It does not show all the inferred resources but instead shows resources of interest such as arithmetic, floating-point, and DSPs. The particular implementation choice of fabric (implemented using LUTs) or DSP is also shown. Finally, the latency of the resource is also shown. This is helpful in understand and increasing the latency of resources if needed to add pipeline stages to the design. This is extremely useful when attempting to break a long combinational path when trying to solve timing issues during implementation.

Each resource allocation is correlated to the source code line where the corresponding op was inferred from and the user can right-click on the resource and select the "Goto Source" option to see this correlation. Finally, the second table below the Bind Op report illustrates any global config settings that can also alter the resource allocation algorithm used by the tool. In the above example, the implementation choice for a dadd (double precision floating point addition) operation has been fixed to a fulldsp implementation. Similarly, the latency of a ddiv operation has been fixed to 2.

Similar to the BIND_OP pragma, the BIND_STORAGE pragma can be used to select a particular memory type (such as single port or dual port) and/or a particular memory implementation (such as BRAM/LUTRAM/URAM/SRL, etc.) and a latency value. The Bind Storage report highlights the storage mappings used in the design. Currently, it calls out the number of BRAMs and URAMs used in the design. The table also highlights whether the particular storage resource allocation was done because of a user-specified pragma and if so, a "yes" entry will be present in the Pragma column. If no entry exists in the Pragma column, then this means that the storage resource was auto inferred by the tool. The particular storage type, as well as the implementation choice, are also shown along with the variable name and latency.

Using this information, you can review the storage resource allocation in the design and make design choices by altering the eventual storage implementation depending upon availability. Finally, a second table below the Bind Storage report will be shown if there are any global config settings that can also alter the storage resource allocation algorithm used by the tool.

User Pragma Report

Displays the ignored and incorrect Pragmas in the design. This report is intended to summarize issues that can otherwise be found in the Vitis HLS log files. It lets you quickly identify issues with the pragmas used in your design, to see which ones may not have been used as expected. In addition, valid pragmas are separately reported so you can see all pragmas in use in the design.

Figure 6. Pragma Report