It is commonly assumed that the route to high-level specification and synthesis goes through C/ C++/ SystemC, particularly for "algorithmic" or "datapath-oriented" applications. This white paper presents a more effective and proven alternative. Starting with the basic computational functions of an application, one can build complex pipeline architectures in an easy "plug-and-play" manner by systematically composing powerful constructors from Bluespec’s PAClib (Pipelined Architecture Composers library).

The high level, yet transparent and precise, specification of the desired pipeline architecture quickly and predictably results in high quality implementations. Moreover, parametrization permits writing a single source code to encompass a wide variety of architectural choices, each of which may be more appropriate for different targets (e.g., mobile device vs. server). The technique relies on the advanced types, parametrization and atomic rule-based semantics of BSV (Bluespec SystemVerilog), unavailable in other design languages. BSV is also universal, seamlessly encompassing both datapath and control-oriented applications, whereas C/C++ high-level synthesis mostly applies to the former. Further, unlike C/C++, everything in BSV is synthesizable, so all refinements from initial models to final implementations can be executed on hardware platforms (e.g., FPGA/ emulation) at speeds orders of magnitude faster than the best software simulators, greatly benefiting validation, verification and early software development.