<s>
C	B-Application
to	I-Application
HDL	I-Application
tools	O
convert	O
C	B-Language
language	I-Language
or	O
C-like	B-Language
computer	O
code	O
into	O
a	O
hardware	B-Architecture
description	O
language	O
(	O
HDL	O
)	O
such	O
as	O
VHDL	B-Language
or	O
Verilog	B-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
converted	O
code	O
can	O
then	O
be	O
synthesized	O
and	O
translated	B-Application
into	O
a	O
hardware	B-Architecture
device	O
such	O
as	O
a	O
field-programmable	B-Architecture
gate	I-Architecture
array	I-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
Compared	O
to	O
software	O
,	O
equivalent	O
designs	O
in	O
hardware	B-Architecture
consume	O
less	O
power	O
(	O
yielding	O
higher	O
performance	O
per	O
watt	O
)	O
and	O
execute	O
faster	O
with	O
lower	O
latency	O
,	O
more	O
parallelism	B-Operating_System
and	O
higher	O
throughput	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
However	O
,	O
system	O
design	O
and	O
functional	O
verification	O
in	O
a	O
hardware	B-Architecture
description	O
language	O
can	O
be	O
tedious	O
and	O
time-consuming	O
,	O
so	O
systems	O
engineers	O
often	O
write	O
critical	B-Operating_System
modules	I-Operating_System
in	O
HDL	O
and	O
other	O
modules	B-Architecture
in	O
a	O
high-level	B-Language
language	I-Language
and	O
synthesize	O
these	O
into	O
HDL	O
through	O
C	B-Application
to	I-Application
HDL	I-Application
or	O
high-level	B-General_Concept
synthesis	I-General_Concept
tools	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
C	B-Language
to	O
is	O
another	O
name	O
for	O
this	O
methodology	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Early	O
development	O
on	O
C	B-Application
to	I-Application
HDL	I-Application
was	O
done	O
by	O
Ian	O
Page	O
,	O
Charles	O
Sweeney	O
and	O
colleagues	O
at	O
Oxford	O
University	O
in	O
the	O
1990s	O
who	O
developed	O
the	O
Handel-C	B-Language
language	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
2008	O
,	O
the	O
embedded	B-Architecture
systems	I-Architecture
departments	O
of	O
Celoxica	O
was	O
sold	O
to	O
Catalytic	O
for	O
$3	O
million	O
and	O
which	O
later	O
merged	O
to	O
become	O
Agility	O
Computing	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
January	O
2009	O
,	O
Mentor	O
Graphics	O
acquired	O
Agility	O
's	O
C	B-General_Concept
synthesis	I-General_Concept
assets	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Celoxica	O
continues	O
to	O
trade	O
concentrating	O
on	O
hardware	B-General_Concept
acceleration	I-General_Concept
in	O
the	O
financial	O
and	O
other	O
industries	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
C	B-Application
to	I-Application
HDL	I-Application
techniques	O
are	O
most	O
commonly	O
applied	O
to	O
applications	B-Application
that	O
have	O
unacceptably	O
high	O
execution	O
times	O
on	O
existing	O
general-purpose	O
supercomputer	B-Architecture
architectures	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Embedded	B-Architecture
applications	I-Architecture
requiring	O
high	B-Architecture
performance	I-Architecture
or	O
real-time	B-Operating_System
data	B-General_Concept
processing	I-General_Concept
are	O
also	O
an	O
area	O
of	O
use	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
System-on-chip	B-Architecture
(	O
SoC	O
)	O
design	O
may	O
also	O
take	O
advantage	O
of	O
C	B-Application
to	I-Application
HDL	I-Application
techniques	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
C-to-VHDL	O
compilers	O
are	O
very	O
useful	O
for	O
large	O
designs	O
or	O
for	O
implementing	O
code	O
that	O
might	O
change	O
in	O
the	O
future	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Designing	O
a	O
large	O
application	O
entirely	O
in	O
HDL	O
may	O
be	O
very	O
difficult	O
and	O
time-consuming	O
;	O
the	O
abstraction	O
of	O
a	O
high	B-Language
level	I-Language
language	I-Language
for	O
such	O
a	O
large	O
application	O
will	O
often	O
reduce	O
total	O
development	O
time	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
If	O
the	O
designer	O
needs	O
to	O
add	O
new	O
functionality	O
to	O
the	O
application	O
,	O
adding	O
a	O
few	O
lines	O
of	O
C	B-Language
code	O
will	O
almost	O
always	O
be	O
easier	O
than	O
remodeling	O
the	O
equivalent	O
HDL	O
code	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Flow	B-Language
to	I-Language
HDL	I-Language
tools	O
have	O
a	O
similar	O
aim	O
,	O
but	O
with	O
flow	B-Application
rather	O
than	O
C-based	O
design	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Open	O
Source	O
ANSI	O
C	B-Language
to	O
Verilog	B-Language
tool	O
,	O
based	O
on	O
LLVM	O
compiler	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Simplified	O
VHDL	B-Language
with	O
support	O
of	O
procedural	O
programming	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
tool	O
developed	O
1995-99	O
by	O
DJ	O
Greaves	O
(	O
Univ	O
Cambridge	O
)	O
that	O
instantiated	O
RAMs	O
and	O
interpreted	O
various	O
SystemC	B-Language
constructs	O
and	O
datatypes	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
by	O
generates	O
a	O
SoC	O
with	O
core	O
,	O
peripherals	O
and	O
memories	O
directly	O
from	O
C++	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
C-like	B-Language
hardware	B-Architecture
description	O
language	O
adding	O
High-level	O
synthesis-like	O
automatic	O
pipelining	O
as	O
a	O
language	O
construct/compiler	O
feature	O
.	O
</s>
