Is It Time to Include High-Level Synthesis Design in Digital System Education for Undergraduate Computer Engineers?

Abstract

We ask the question, "should High-level Synthesis (HLS) design be part of an undergraduate computer engineering education while learning digital system design?".Current trends in industry include an increasing demand for engineers who can build FPGA systems. FPGAs, just like other chips, continue to improve in terms of complexity, speed, available resources, and new features. The design complexity for using an FPGA continues to grow and Hardware Description Languages (HDLs), though a step up in design efficiency compared to schematic design, is a low-level approach akin to assembly language for programmers, and HDLs limits the productivity of an engineer. HLS tools, such as Legup, Intel HLS, and Xilinx's Vivado attempt to provide designers with a higher-level design abstraction providing a means to describe their computation in high-level languages -such as C. As these tools become more mainstream in industry, when should education follow?In this work, we explore how HLS tools might be used by an undergraduate by looking at exemplar designs, a simple RISC-V processor and a basic C loop, and implementing the design in both HDL and HLS. We then analyze the FPGA cost of each implementation. Next, we provide a philosophical discussion based on this experience on what the pros and cons of moving students to HLS design abstraction level are.

SHDL—A Hardware Description Language and Open-Source Web Tool for Online Digital Systems Design Teaching

“…Digital systems design courses focus on designing architectures and describing digital components using HDL. There are several higher-level digital design languages [3], but the standard languages remain, and provide a solid foundation for undergraduate education [4].…”

Introducing High-Level Synthesis in Computer Engineering Curricula

“…Nelson et al [6] designed an experiment where they had a sophomore student implement a RISC-V processor in a simple looped design in both HDL and using an HLS design flow in C. the discussion revealed the student was very pleased with the experiment, but still needed more time to fully understand and unlock the potential of using HLS tools.…”

“…Computer engineering programs have been slow to adopt these technological changes and as a result, examples of the use of HLS in the undergraduate classroom are few and far between. Recently published studies have been exploring the advantages of including HLS in undergraduate computer engineering programs [5][6][7], yet many questions need to be answered. Some of the research questions that we are going to answer in this work are: 1) How and when should HLS be introduced in computer engineering curricula 2) What preparation do students need to understand HLS?…”