IP-block-based design environment for high-throughput VLSI dedicated digital signal processing systems

The growing requirement on the correct design of a high performance DSP system in short time force us to use IP´s in many design. In this paper, we propose an efficient IP block based design environment for high throughput VLSI systems. The flow generates SystemC register transfer level (RTL) architecture, starting from a Matlab functional model described as a netlist of functional IP. The refinement process inserts automatically control structures to treat delays induced by the use of RTL IPs. It also inserts a control structure to coordinate the execution of parallel clocked IP. The delays may be managed by registers or by counters included in the control structure. The experimentations show that the approach can produce efficient RTL architecture and allow a huge save of time.