Mapping a domain specific language to a platform FPGA

Abstract

A domain specific language (DSL) enables designers to rapidly specify and implement systems for a particular domain, yielding designs that are easy to understand, reason about, re-use and maintain. However, there is usually a significant overhead in the required infrastructure to map such a DSL on to a programmable logic device. In this paper, we present a mapping of an existing DSL for the networking domain on to a platform FPGA by embedding the DSL into an existing language infrastructure. In particular, we will show that, using few basic concepts, we are able to achieve a successful mapping of the DSL on to a platform FPGA and create a re-usable structure that also makes it easy to extend the DSL. Finally we will present some results of mapping the DSL on to a platform FPGA and comment on the resulting overhead.