A Width-Configurable Hardware Approach for Accelerating Fixed-Point Simulation

Fixed-point simulation is a critical step in the design flow of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) systems and consumes a significant portion of the overall development time. This work proposes a novel hardware-based approach to improve the performance of fixed-point simulation through a widthconfigurable architecture implemented on Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). To our knowledge, this is the first reported hardware-based solution for fixed-point simulation reported in the literature, which provides substantial speedup compared to traditional software-based approaches. The presented approach utilizes High-Level Synthesis (HLS) tools to create modular, reusable components that enhance the design reusability. This approach accelerates fixed-point simulation for various applications, requiring only minor modifications to the application code to utilize it. By incorporating simulation capabilities within reusable functions, this work improves the efficiency and adaptability of the fixed-point simulation process. Implementation results for two FIR filter applications show that the proposed methodology is superior to traditional software-based approaches in reducing simulation time by two orders of magnitude and thus has the potential to improve the productivity of the DSP system design flow.