Max-flow scheduling in high-level synthesis

Scheduling, an essential step in high-level synthesis, is an intractable process. Traditional heuristic scheduling methods usually search schedules directly in the entire solution space. In this paper, we propose the idea of searching within an intermediate solution space (ISS). We put forward a max-flow scheduling method that heuristically prunes the solution space into a specific ISS and finds the optimum of ISS in polynomial time. The proposed scheduling algorithm has some unique features, such as the correction of previous scheduling decisions in a later stage, the simultaneous scheduling of all the operations, and the optimization of more complicated objectives. Aided by the max-flow scheduling method, we implement the optimization of the IC power-ground integrity problem at the behavior level conveniently. Experiments on well-known benchmarks show that without requiring additional resources or prolonging schedule latency, the proposed scheduling method can find a schedule that draws current more stably from a supply, which mitigates the voltage fluctuation in the on-chip power distribution network.