Compiler-Aware Heterogeneous Graph Learning for HLS QoR Prediction and Design Space Exploration

Abstract

High-level synthesis (HLS) design space exploration seeks Pareto-optimal designs within vast directive configuration spaces. Existing graph neural network approaches rely mostly on single-graph, homogeneous-style representations that do not model pragma-to-target semantics explicitly, which is especially limiting for memory-related optimizations whose hardware effects are realized through compiler IR rather than source syntax. We propose Chariot, an end-to-end HLS optimization framework with a compiler-aware graph construction pipeline that uses LLVM static analysis and Use-Def tracking to link pragmas to their resolved targets across memory boundaries, and represents each design as a heterogeneous graph with distinct node and edge types and a dedicated directive-to-target relation. Built on a multi-suite dataset from an AST-based rules engine, Chariot attains strong post-implementation QoR prediction and improves DSE ranking quality on unseen benchmarks, improving average top-k ranking quality by 2.3–4.8× over the strongest prior baseline across ranking budgets while delivering orders-of-magnitude speedup over synthesis-in-the-loop exploration. The advantages carry over to an independent public HLS dataset on a different FPGA family, where Chariot again attains the lowest QoR prediction error across all targets, demonstrating cross-dataset and cross-device generalization.

Publication
IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems