Introduction

Distributed pipelining is a subsystem-wide optimization supported by HDL Coder for achieving high clock speed hardware. By turning on 'Distributed Pipelining', the coder redistributes the input pipeline registers, output pipeline register of the subsystem and the registers in the subsystem to appropriate positions to minimize the combinatorial logic between registers and maximize the clock speed of the chip synthesized from the generated HDL code.

Consider the following example model of a symmetric FIR filter. The combinatorial logic from an input or a register to an output or another register contains a product block and an adder tree. Distributed pipelining will move the output registers set at the subsystem level to reduce the levels of the combinatorial logic.

bdclose all;
load_system('sfir_fixed');
open_system('sfir_fixed/symmetric_fir');

Setting Output Pipeline Stage

To increase the clock speed, the user can set a number of pipeline stages for any subsystem. Without turning on distributed pipelining, the specified number of registers will be added to each of the output ports of the subsystem. Some synthesis tools support features like retiming that optimize the position of the registers during synthesis.

In this example, the subsystem output pipeline register is set to 5.

The code-generation model explicitly reflects the inserted register at output ports of the subsystem(highlighted in orange).

hdlset_param('sfir_fixed/symmetric_fir', 'OutputPipeline', 5);
makehdl('sfir_fixed/symmetric_fir');
open_system('gm_sfir_fixed/symmetric_fir');
set_param('gm_sfir_fixed', 'SimulationCommand', 'update');

### Generating HDL for 'sfir_fixed/symmetric_fir'.
### Using the config set for model <a href="matlab:configset.showParameterGroup('sfir_fixed', { 'HDL Code Generation' } )">sfir_fixed</a> for HDL code generation parameters.
### Starting HDL check.
### The code generation and optimization options you have chosen have introduced additional pipeline delays.
### The delay balancing feature has automatically inserted matching delays for compensation.
### The DUT requires an initial pipeline setup latency. Each output port experiences these additional delays.
### Output port 0: 5 cycles.
### Output port 1: 5 cycles.
### Begin VHDL Code Generation for 'sfir_fixed'.
### Working on sfir_fixed/symmetric_fir as hdlsrc/sfir_fixed/symmetric_fir.vhd.
### Generating package file hdlsrc/sfir_fixed/symmetric_fir_pkg.vhd.
### Creating HDL Code Generation Check Report file:///tmp/BR2020bd_1444674_32127/publish_examples1/tp8971c020/hdlsrc/sfir_fixed/symmetric_fir_report.html
### HDL check for 'sfir_fixed' complete with 0 errors, 0 warnings, and 0 messages.
### HDL code generation complete.

Setting Distributed Pipelining

Distributed pipelining is one of the subsystem block options. Once turned on, the registers in the subsystem, including output pipeline registers and input pipeline registers, will be repositioned to achieve best clock speed. It is equivalent to retiming at subsystem level.

The code-generation model explicitly reflects the distributed registers in the subsystem (highlighted in orange).

hdlset_param('sfir_fixed/symmetric_fir', 'DistributedPipelining', 'on');
makehdl('sfir_fixed/symmetric_fir');
open_system('gm_sfir_fixed/symmetric_fir');
set_param('gm_sfir_fixed', 'SimulationCommand', 'update');

### Generating HDL for 'sfir_fixed/symmetric_fir'.
### Using the config set for model <a href="matlab:configset.showParameterGroup('sfir_fixed', { 'HDL Code Generation' } )">sfir_fixed</a> for HDL code generation parameters.
### Starting HDL check.
### The code generation and optimization options you have chosen have introduced additional pipeline delays.
### The delay balancing feature has automatically inserted matching delays for compensation.
### The DUT requires an initial pipeline setup latency. Each output port experiences these additional delays.
### Output port 0: 5 cycles.
### Output port 1: 5 cycles.
### Begin VHDL Code Generation for 'sfir_fixed'.
### Working on sfir_fixed/symmetric_fir as hdlsrc/sfir_fixed/symmetric_fir.vhd.
### Generating package file hdlsrc/sfir_fixed/symmetric_fir_pkg.vhd.
### Creating HDL Code Generation Check Report file:///tmp/BR2020bd_1444674_32127/publish_examples1/tp8971c020/hdlsrc/sfir_fixed/symmetric_fir_report.html
### HDL check for 'sfir_fixed' complete with 0 errors, 0 warnings, and 0 messages.
### HDL code generation complete.

Opportunities for Distributed Pipelining Across Subsystem Hierarchies

Since 'Distributed Pipelining' is a subsystem-level parameter, different subsystems at different levels of the hierarchy can specify different pipeline stage values and different 'Distributed Pipelining' settings. By default, the coder distributes only registers of the specified subsystem in this subsystem, not through the lower level subsystems. If cross hierarchy distribution is desired, users can set the 'Distributed Pipelining' for lower subsystems to 'On', then turn on the global option 'Hierarchical Distributed Pipelining'. When the local and global options are on, the entire subsystem, including the lower level subsystems, will be considered as a single subsystem when registers are distributed.

bdclose all;