Using the New Vitis Unified IDE - 2024.1 English

High-Level Synthesis (HLS) is a key part of the Vitis development flow. The tool is responsible for compiling C/C++ code into an RTL module for implementation in the programmable logic (PL) region of AMD devices or platforms.

In the Vitis unified IDE the PL kernel is created as an HLS component, letting you run C simulation on your C/C++ source code, optimize your design with pragmas or directives, synthesize and analyze the results, and export the design as either an Vivado IP for use with the Vivado Design Suite, or as a Vitis kernel (.xo) file for use in a higher-level System project.

The first step is to create a workspace for your project, and to launch the Vitis unified IDE using the following steps:

1. Create a workspace: mkdir <tutorial_path>/Getting_Started/Vitis_HLS/reference_files/workDCT

2. Launch the Vitis unified IDE: vitis -w workDCT

The workspace is a folder for holding the various components and projects of a design.

TIP: The workspace is simply the place where you will store the files related to creating and building your project, or multiple projects.

The Vitis unified IDE opens displaying the Welcome page. Use the File > New Component > HLS to create a new HLS component. This opens the Create HLS Component wizard to the Name and Location page.

1. For the Component name field specify dct

2. For the Component location specify the workspace (default value)

3. Click Next to open the Configuration File page

The Configuration File lets you specify commands for building and running the HLS component as described in HLS Config File Commands. You can specify a new empty file, an existing config file, or generate a config file from an existing HLS project as described in Creating an HLS Component.

1. Select Empty File and click Next.

This opens the Source Files page.

In this tutorial, you are working with a simple discrete cosine transform (DCT) algorithm that processes an input matrix of values, applies fixed coefficients, and returns a matrix of modified values. In the reference_files/src folder, the dct.cpp contains the top-level DCT function.

1. Select the Add Files icon to open a file browser, navigate to <tutorial_path>/Getting_Started/Vitis_HLS/reference_files/src/dct.cpp and select Open to add the file.

2. Under the Top Function browse and select the dct(short*, short*) function and click OK.

3. Under the Test Bench Files select the Add Files icon to open a file browser and select the following three files:

   • dct_test.cpp is a test bench for the design that iterates through the kernel multiple times.

   • in.dat provides the input values to be processed by the kernel.

   • out.golden.dat provides known output results to use for comparing the output of the dct function against.

Writing a good testbench can greatly increase your productivity because C functions execute in orders of magnitude faster than RTL simulations. Using C to develop and validate the algorithm before synthesis is much faster than developing and debugging RTL code. For more information, refer to Writing a Testbench.

1. Click Next to open the the Select Part page to select the default part and click Next to open the Settings page.

2. On the Settings page, under clock specify 8ns for the period, and 12% for the clock_uncertainty to override the default values. The default clock uncertainty, when it is not specified, is 27% of the clock period. For more information, refer to Specifying the Clock Frequency

3. Select the Vitis Kernel Flow Target, and specify Generate a Vitis XO for the package.output.format.

4. Click Next to open the Summary page. Review the Summary page and click Finish to create the defined HLS component.

The HLS component is created and opened as shown in the figure below.

In the Vitis Components Explorer you can see the dct component created, with the vitis-comp.json file opened in the center editor. You can see the hls-config.cfg file which is where the build directives will be placed to control the simulation and synthesis process. You can also see the Sources folder and the Test Bench files that were added as the component was created.

The Flow Navigator displays the dct component as the active component, and shows the flow for designing the HLS component including C Simulation, C Synthesis, C/RTL Co-simuation, Package, and Implementation. You will walk through some of these steps in the following sections.

Conclusion

You created the DCT project, targeted your AMD device or board, and configured the solution characteristics. You are ready to move to the next lab, Running Simulation, Synthesis and Analyzing Results.

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