Faust2FPGA for Ultra-Low Audio Latency: Preliminary work in the Syfala project

Abstract : FPGAs are increasingly present in every field of computer science. The generalization of High Level Synthesis (HLS) improves the productivity of the FPGA programmer. However, even with HLS, FPGA configuration requires advanced engineering. This paper investigates the use of FPGA in the context of very low latency (less than 500µs) audio digital signal processing. We propose a methodology to compile FAUST programs on FPGA platforms towards ultra-low latency. We expose the challenges it raises and report about the first steps of a future faust2FPGA compiler.