At embedded world 2012 CoSynth will present their newest product, the CoSynth Synthesizer, a tool for the creation of FPGA-accelerated systems directly from existing software algorithms. Once Embedded PCs do not have enough performance anymore, there are two options: An expensive and energy-consuming fast CPU as replacement, or integration of coprocessors such as DSP, GPU, or FPGA. Since these special processors require a special programming, high costs for experts or ready-made solutions were required until now. By the use of the CoSynth Synthesizer, FPGA development can be made in software. Usual programs, written in C/C++, are prepared for parallel computation on FPGAs by the use of the C++ library SystemC.
The final system is thus still a pure software solution. It can be simulated on all PC systems and developed, tested, and optimized with common software design tools. As a last step, the CoSynth Synthesizer automatically generates the hardware description required for the FPGA implementation directly from the software model. Function and timing specifications are exactly reproduced, such that the previously tested properties of the system are preserved by the hardware. In combination with the contained IP cores, resources on the FPGAs are optimally integrated into the system. This also includes local memory and busses, interfaces to the CPUs and other I/Os. All these components are designed at software layer and automatically mapped to the hardware.
