This C library has 5 different dynamic memory allocation schemes, suitable for software and HLS designers (even though the purpose of this library was intended to serve the latter case). Our library is configurable on a minimum request size.
libgnumem.c: An allocator which inherits most of it's logic from Doug Lea'smalloc & free.liblinmem.c: A linear allocator which 'bumps' up a pointer by an incoming request size to the next available free region of memory.libbitmem.c: A bitmap allocator, which configurable minimum request size.libbudmem.c: A buddy allocator, which is configurable on minimum request size.liblutmem.c: A LUT-like allocator, where a request size is mapped to a corresponding set of preallocated address, stored in a LUT.
We also include the LLVM-Transformation Pass which was outlined in Dynamic Memory Allocation Techniques for High-Level Synthesis. This pass is able to convert stack allocated arrays into dynamic memory calls in order to reduce BRAM pressure within an FPGA. This pass lives in transformation
For a beginner HLS developer wishing to port over designs using dynamic memory, it is not straightforward or easy to migrate designs to a static memory requirement. With this library, we patch this concern.
Yes, I have linked a separate repository which includes a suite of benchmarks (suitable for performance checking with HLS tools) This link is here!
This library doesn't use off-chip memory. It strings together a bunch of BRAMs and uses this as a heap.
This library is associated with this publication: Nicholas Giamblanco and Jason Anderson. A Dynamic Memory Allocation Library for High-Level Synthesis. In 2019 29th International Conference on Field Programmable Logic and Applications (FPL). IEEE, 2019
Nicholas V. Giamblanco, M.A.Sc. (2019)