Patent ID: 6226776
Filing Date: 2001-05-01
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A method for converting a C-type language program to a hardware design, comprising the steps of:creating an algorithmic representation in a given C-type programming language corresponding to a preliminary hardware design;compiling the C-type programming language preliminary hardware design into a hardware description language (HDL) synthesizable design, wherein the step of compiling comprises the steps of:compiling a C-type program control flow into an HDL state machine; andassigning input/output as defined in the C-type program to specific wires in the HDL synthesizable design;configuring in the HDL synthesizable design an interface for a gate-level hardware representation;determining the presence of any C-type pointers in the C-type program; andcompiling any C-type pointers and pointer indirection into an HDL state-machine-based memory access protocol.