Synthesis of parallel hardware implementations from synchronous dataflow graph specifications

We detail a method for the partitioning of a single application specified in synchronous dataflow (SDF) into multiple independently-synthesizable, communicating VHDL hardware modules. Either synchronous or asynchronous communication is allowed, and the clock timing and control are automatically generated. We show that this method guarantees the preservation of correct functional behavior as specified in the original SDF graph, and that many choices of partitioning into multiple hardware modules are possible. The ability to break up a larger application into smaller synthesizable hardware modules can lead to efficiencies in hardware synthesis, which is faster when performed on smaller VHDL specifications. We illustrate this new method with some practical example applications that have been constructed in Ptolemy.