Intel® High Level Synthesis Compiler Pro Edition: Reference Manual

ID 683349
Date 12/04/2023
Public

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10. Systems of Tasks

Your component design might contain operations that you want to run asynchronously from the main flow of your component. The Intel® HLS Compiler Pro Edition lets you define these asynchronous activities in task functions. These task functions, along with the component that invokes them, constitute a system of tasks.

The component keyword marks a single function and its subfunctions as a component. Within this component function, directly-called functions are in-lined while functions that use the systems of tasks API calls (ihc::launch and ihc::collect) generate hardware outside the component datapath and behave like an asynchronous call.

The function tagged with the component keyword marks the boundary of a system of tasks. Your external system can interact with all the interfaces that the component exposes.

Implementing your design as a system of tasks instead of a monolithic component can be useful in situations where expressing coarse-grained thread-level parallelism is needed. For example, a system of tasks is useful in the following situations:
  • Improving the performance of operations like executing loops in parallel
  • Reducing FPGA area utilization by sharing an expensive compute block with different parts of your component
Table 23.   Intel® HLS Compiler System of Tasks Summary
Function Description
ihc::launch Marks a function as an Intel® HLS Compiler task for hardware generation, and launches the task function asynchronously.
ihc::collect Synchronizes the completion of the specified task function in the component.
ihc::stream Allows streaming communication between different task functions.
ihc::launch_always_run Launches a task function at component power-on or reset and continuously executes the function.
Recommendation: Use the ihc_hls_set_component_wait_cycle with this function to keep your component and always-run task functions correctly coordinated.
Table 24.   Intel® HLS Compiler Systems of Tasks Streaming Interface Template Summary
Template Object or Parameter Description
ihc::stream Streaming interface to the component or task function.
ihc::buffer Specifies the capacity (in words) of the FIFO buffer on the input data that associates with the stream.
ihc::usesPackets Exposes the startofpacket and endofpacket sideband signals on the stream interface.
Table 25.   Intel® HLS Compiler Streaming Input Interface stream Function APIs
Function API Description
T read() Blocking read call to be used from within the component or task
T read(bool& sop, bool& eop)

Available only if usesPackets<true> is set.

Blocking read with out-of-band startofpacket and endofpacket signals.
T tryRead(bool &success) Non-blocking read call to be used from within the component or task. The success bool is set to true if the read was valid.
T tryRead(bool& success, bool& sop, bool& eop)

Available only if usesPackets<true> is set.

Non-blocking read with out-of-band startofpacket and endofpacket signals.
void write(T data) Blocking write call from the component or task.
void write(T data, bool sop, bool eop)

Available only if usesPackets<true> is set.

Blocking write with out-of-band startofpacket and endofpacket signals.
bool tryWrite(T data) Non-blocking write call from the component or task. The return value represents whether the write was successful.
bool tryWrite(T data, bool sop, bool eop)

Available only if usesPackets<true> is set.

Non-blocking write with out-of-band startofpacket and endofpacket signals.

The return value represents whether the write was successful.