Design methodology for construction of asynchronous pipelines with Handel-C

CSP (communicating sequential processes) channels are proposed as a means of developing high-level, asynchronous pipeline architectures over and above existing synchronous logic. Channel-based design allows hardware systems to be designed and constructed using top-down software engineering methods, which have not previously been available within hardware-software co-design. The intention is to enhance support for future large-scale co-designs. The design methodology and its performance implications are demonstrated through an exemplar, pipelined design of the Karhunen-Loeve transform (KLT) algorithm, implemented using the Handel-C silicon compiler applied to dense FPGAs.