Impulse C

Impulse C is a high-level programming language used in software/hardware codesign. It is a subset of the C programming language combined with a C-compatible function library supporting parallel programming, in particular for programming of applications targeting FPGA devices. It is developed by Impulse Accelerated Technologies of Kirkland, Washington.

Overview

The High-level synthesis tool CoDeveloper includes an Impulse C compiler and related function library intended for development of FPGA-based applications. Impulse C is compatible with standard ANSI C, allowing standard C tools to be used for designing and debugging applications targeting FPGAs. The Impulse C compiler accepts a subset of C and generates FPGA hardware in the form of Hardware Description Language (HDL) files. Impulse C allows embedded systems designers and software programmers to target FPGA devices for C-language application acceleration.

Impulse C is distinct from standard C in that it provides a parallel programming model for mixed processor and FPGA platforms. For this purpose, Impulse C includes extensions to C, in the form of functions and datatypes, allowing applications written in standard C to be mapped onto coarse-grained parallel architectures that may include standard processors along with programmable FPGA hardware.

The Impulse C tools include hardware/software co-simulation tools as well as C-to-RTL scheduling/optimizing technology used to map application elements to hardware via FPGA logic synthesis tools.