Launching Vitis HLS

The primary controls for using Vitis HLS are shown in the toolbar in the following figure. Project control ensures only commands that can be currently executed are highlighted. For example, synthesis must be performed before C/RTL co-simulation can be executed. The C/RTL co-simulation toolbar buttons remain gray until synthesis completes.

In the Project Management section, the buttons are (from left to right):

• Create New Project opens the new project wizard.
• Project Settings allows the current project settings to be modified.
• New Solution opens the new solution dialog box.
• Solution Settings allows the current solution settings to be modified.

The next group of toolbar buttons control the tool operation (from left to right):

• Index C Source refreshes the annotations in the C source.
• Run C Simulation opens the C Simulation dialog box.
• C Synthesis starts C source code to RTL synthesis in Vitis HLS.
• Run C/RTL Cosimulation verifies the RTL output.
• Export RTL packages the RTL into the desired IP output format.

The final group of toolbar buttons are for design analysis (from left to right):

• Open Report opens the C synthesis report or drops down to open other reports.
• Compare Reports allows the reports from different solutions to be compared.

Each of the buttons on the toolbar has an equivalent command in the menus. In addition, Vitis HLS GUI provides three perspectives. When you select a perspective, the windows automatically adjust to a more suitable layout for the selected task.

• The Debug perspective opens the C debugger.
• The Synthesis perspective is the default perspective and arranges the windows for performing synthesis.
• The Analysis perspective is used after synthesis completes to analyze the design in detail. This perspective provides considerable more detail than the synthesis report.

Changing between perspectives can be done at any time by selecting the desired perspective button.