Comparing Signal Processing Hardware-Synthesis Methods Based on the Matlab Tool-Chain

Various commercial and academic tools are available for the synthesis of hardware algorithms. Focusing on signal processing algorithms, we compare efficiency, flexibility and usability of hardware synthesis approaches based on the widely used Matlab with add-on toolboxes or 3rd-party tools. We use several designs as case studies to investigate the effect of the tool features with respect to hardware architecture and design flexibility. Special emphasis is set to the designer's freedom of choice between different arithmetic operator architectures, between pipe-lining versus operator sequencing, and between parallel versus sequential architectures.