Patent ID: 7222314

Claim:
A method for generating a hardware interface specification in a hardware description language (HDL) from a high-level language (HLL) specification of a software procedure, comprising: generating an HDL description of a first memory for storing input data corresponding to a plurality of data values consumed by the software procedure specified by the HLL specification; generating an HDL description of at least one first state machine that receives the input data and stores the input data in the first memory, wherein at least one of the at least one first state machine receives a plurality of the data values; generating for each first state machine an HDL description of a respective first FIFO buffer that conveys the input data to the first state machine, wherein the input data is read from the respective FIFO buffer to the first state machine and stored in the first memory; generating an HDL description of a second memory for storing output data corresponding to at least one data value produced by the software procedure specified by the HLL specification; wherein the input data in the first memory is consumed and the output data in the second memory is produced by a hardware implementation of data processing performed by the software procedure; generating an HDL description of at least one second state machine that reads the output data from the second memory and sends the output data; generating for each second state machine an HDL description of a respective second FIFO buffer that conveys the output data from the second state machine; and generating an HDL description of an activation signal that is activated in response to a corresponding at least one first signal from the at least one first state machine, wherein the at least one first signal indicates availability of the input data in the first memory.