The INTERFACE Pragma - 2023.2 English

The INTERFACE pragma specifies the physical adapters for the kernel C ports and how they attach to the platform during what is referred to as “interface synthesis” in HLS.

These physical adapters and their associated RTL implementation are derived from the following:

• Any function-level protocol that is specified: Function-level protocols, also called block-level I/O protocols, provide signals to control when the function starts operation, and indicate when function operation ends, is idle, and is ready for new inputs. The implementation of a function-level protocol is: Specified by the mode values ap_ctrl_none, ap_ctrl_hs, or ap_ctrl_chain. The ap_ctrl_hs block-level I/O protocol is the default. Are associated with the function name.

• Function arguments: Each function argument can be specified to have its own port-level (I/O) interface protocol, such as valid handshake (ap_vld), or acknowledge handshake (ap_ack). Port-level interface protocols are created for each argument in the top-level function and the function return, if the function returns a value. The default I/O protocol created depends on the type of C argument. After the block-level protocol has been used to start the operation of the block, the port-level I/O protocols are used to sequence data into and out of the block.

• Global variables accessed by the top-level function, and defined outside its scope:

• If a global variable is accessed, but all read and write operations are local to the function, the resource is created in the RTL design. There is no need for an I/O port in the RTL. If the global variable is expected to be an external source or destination, specify its interface in a similar manner as standard function arguments. See the Examples below.

When the INTERFACE pragma is used on sub-functions, only the register option can be used. The mode option is not supported on sub-functions.

TIP: The Vivado High-Level Synthesis (HLS) tool automatically determines the I/O protocol used by any sub-functions. You cannot control these ports except to specify whether the port is registered.