Type-handling in bit-true silicon compilation for DSP

The behavioural description of a DSP algorithm consists of a signal flow graph, i.e. a list of operations on variables defined by their numerical types. The authors show the impact of numerical types on the automated architectural synthesis of application specific ICs for DSP and how type information can be used to come up with an efficient ASIC architecture. The term bit-true silicon compilation is defined and exemplified with the new CATHEDRAL-2nd synthesis system. In particular the alignment and multiplexer-input minimization tasks, which are strongly related with type-handling, is discussed in detail and exemplified