A brief introduction on contemporary High-Level Synthesis

This paper tries to give a brief introduction on contemporary High-Level Synthesis (HLS). It covers following areas on HLS: design languages, main algorithms and flow, available commercial and academic tools, HLS application space, benefits of using HLS, and remaining challenges. The goals of this paper are to give reader an overview of HLS area, promote the adoption of HLS in the industry, and point out interesting research directions. © 2014 IEEE.