Cooperation of synthesis, retargetable code generation and test generation in the MSS

The authors report how the different tools in the MIMOLA hardware design system MSS are used during a typical design process. Typical design processes are partly automatic and partly manual. They include high-level synthesis, manual post-optimization, retargetable code generation, testability evaluation and simulation. It is shown how consistent tools can help to solve a variety of related design tasks. There is no other system with an equivalent set of consistent tools. A key point of this work is to show how current high-level synthesis systems can be extended by retargetable code generators which map algorithms to predefine structures. This extension is necessary in order to support manual design modifications