[Roadmap] HeteroCL Release Note v0.2

[seanlatias]

Release Note

We are happy to announce that HeteroCL is now an open-source project. HeteroCL is currently both Python 2 and Python 3 compatible. Following we list the currently supported features and its related links (in tests and/or in the documentation).

General API

• hcl.init (initialize a HeteroCL environment)
• hcl.placeholder (create an input placeholder)
• hcl.create_schedule (create a schedule for hardware customization)
• hcl.lower (lower the program to IR for investigation)
• hcl.build (build the program)
• Related links: test, tutorial, doc

Data Type

• hcl.Int, hcl.UInt (can have arbitrary bitwidth up to 255 bits)
• hcl.Fixed, hcl.UFixed (can have arbitrary bitwidth up to 255 bits)
• hcl.Float (can be 32 or 64 bits)
• Related links: test, tutorial, doc

Imperative DSL

• hcl.and_, hcl.or_
• hcl.if_, hcl.elif_, hcl.else_
• hcl.for_, hcl.while_, hcl.break_
• bit operations (get bit, set bit, get slice, set slice)
• hcl.def_, hcl.return_ (a custom-defined HeteroCL module)
• Related links: general test, def test, tutorial, doc

Compute API

• hcl.compute (compute a new tensor according to the given formula)
• hcl.update (update an exsiting tensor according to the given formula)
• hcl.mutate (mutatively update an existing tensor)
• hcl.reduce_axis (create a reduce axis for reduction operation)
• hcl.sum (perform a summation on the given axis)
• hcl.pack, hcl.unpack (pack/unpack a tensor to larger/lower bitwidth)
• hcl.Stage (create a stage that contains user-defined operations)
• Related links: general test, reduction test, pack/unpck test, stage test, tutorial, doc

Compute Customization

• split, fuse, tile
• unroll, pipeline, parallel
• compute_at
• Related links: general test, imperative dsl test, tutorial, module tutorial, doc

Data Type API & Data Type Customization

• hcl.create_scheme (create a scheme for data type customization)
• hcl.create_schedule_from_scheme
• hcl.downsize (downsize integers to lower bit-width)
• hcl.quantize (quantize floating-points to fixed-points)
• Related links: test, tutorial, doc

Memory Customization

• partition, reshape
• reuse_at (create a reuse buffer provided the input tensor and stage)
• Related links: test, tutorial, doc

Back-end Target

• llvm (default target for CPU)
• vhls (generate Vivado HLS code)
• vhls_csim (generate an executable compiled from Vivado HLS code)
• ihls (generate Intel HLS code)
• merlinc (generate Merlin C code)
• soda (generate SODA DSL)
• soda_xhls (generate Vivado HLS code from SODA DSL)
• Related links: vhls test, ihls test, merlinc test, soda test, tutorial, SDOA tutorial

Stable Samples

• KNN-based digit recognition: code, tutorial
• CORDIC: code, tutorial
• K-means: code, tutorial
• GEMM: code, tutorial
• Smith-Waterman: code, tutorial
• LeNet Inference: code, tutorial