Energy-function approach to high-level synthesis scheduling

A new scheduling algorithm based on an energy function is presented. Scheduling is performed iteratively under the direction of an energy function until all the operations are scheduled and the total energy gets into a minimum. In each iteration of scheduling, it is possible to either schedule an operation to a control step (assign) or exclude the possibility of scheduling an operation to a control step (unassign). The energy function determines the operation to be selected and to which control step this operation is assigned or unassigned. Search width and depth are introduced to reduce the time complexity in selecting the operation to be scheduled in each iteration