Dynamatic’s High Level Synthesis Flow

Flow script compile.sh

Diagram of the Overall Compilation Flow

Stage 1: Source -> Affine level

In this stage, we convert source code to affine level mlir dialect with polygist and generate the affine.mlir file.

Stage 2: Affine level -> SCF level

In this stage, we do the following two steps:

• Conduct pre-processing and memory analysis with dynamatic_opt and generate affine_mem.mlir.
• Convert the affine level mlir dialect to structured control flow(scf) level mlir dialect and generate the scf.mlir file.

Stage 3: SCF level -> CF level

In this stage, we convert the scf level mlir dialect to control flow(cf) level mlir dialect and generate the std.mlir file.

Stage 4: CF level transformations

In this stage we conduct the following two transformations in the cf level in order:

• Standard transformations and generate the std_transformed.mlir file.
• Dynamatic specific transformations and generate the std_dyn_transformed.mlir file.

Stage 5: CF level -> Handshake level

In this stage we convert the cf level mlir dialect to handshake level mlir dialect and generate the handshake.mlir file.

Stage 6: Handshake level transformations

In this stage, we conduct handshake dialect related transformations and generate the handshake_transformed.mlir file.

Stage 7: Buffer Placement

In this stage, we conduct the buffer placement process, we have two `mutually excluseive`` options:

• Smart buffer placement:
  • Profiling is performed at the CF level mlir dialect (specifically std_dyn_transformed.mlir), and the results are exported to a freq.csv file.
  • This freq.csv file is then used in the smart buffer placement process.
• Simple buffer placement: (Dashed lines in the above diagram)
  • No need for profiling, we directly do buffer placement.

Results are stored in handshake_buffered.mlir file.

Stage 8: Export

In this stage, we conduct handshake canonicalization and produce the final export file (handshake_export.mlir).