Auto-Pipe: A Pipeline Design and Evaluation System

Auto-Pipe is a tool that aids in the design, evaluation and implementation of pipelined applications that are distributed across a set of heterogeneous devices including multiple processors and FPGAs. It has been developed to meet the needs arising in the domains of communications, computation on large datasets, and real time streaming data applications. In this paper, the AutoPipe design flow is introduced and two sample applications, developed for compatibility with the Auto-Pipe system, are presented. The sample applications are the Triple-DES encryption standard and a subset of the signal-processing pipeline for VERITAS, a high-energy gamma-ray astrophysics experiment. These applications are analyzed and one phase of the Auto-Pipe design flow is illustrated. The results demonstrate the performance implications of different task-to-stage and stage-to-platform (e.g., processor, FPGA) assignments.