AI4DSE: Leveraging Dynamic Graph Neural Networks and Large Language Models for Optimizing High-Level Synthesis Design Space Exploration

High-Level Synthesis (HLS) Design Space Exploration (DSE) is essential for generating hardware designs that balance performance, power, and area (PPA). To optimize this process, existing works often employs message-passing neural networks (MPNNs) to predict quality of results (QoR). These predictors serve as evaluators in the DSE process, effectively bypassing the time-consuming estimations traditionally required by HLS tools. However, existing models based on MPNNs struggle with over-smoothing and limited expressiveness. Additionally, while meta-heuristic algorithms are widely used in DSE, they typically require extensive domain-specific knowledge to design operators and time-consuming tuning. To address these limitations, we propose ECoGNNs-LLMMHs, a framework that integrates graph neural networks with task-adaptive message passing and large language model-enhanced meta-heuristic algorithms. Compared with state-of-the-art works, ECoGNN exhibits lower prediction error in the post-HLS prediction task, with the error reduced by 57.27%. For post-implementation prediction tasks, ECoGNN demonstrates the lowest prediction errors, with average reductions of 17.6% for flip-flop (FF) usage, 33.7% for critical path (CP) delay, 26.3% for power consumption, 38.3% for digital signal processor (DSP) utilization, and 40.8% for BRAM usage. LLMMH variants can generate superior Pareto fronts compared to meta-heuristic algorithms in terms of average distance from the reference set (ADRS) with average improvements of 87.77%, respectively. Compared with the SOTA DSE approaches GNN-DSE and IRONMAN-PRO, LLMMH can reduce the ADRS by 68.17% and 61.53% respectively. Code and models are available at https://github.com/wslcccc/CoGNNs_LLMMH.

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Publication Details

Journal
ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems
Published
2026-03-28
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1145/3805806
Primary Topic
Embedded Systems Design Techniques
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

AI4DSE: Leveraging Dynamic Graph Neural Networks and Large Language Models for Optimizing High-Level Synthesis Design Space Exploration

Emmanuel Casseau, Lei Xu, Shanshan Wang, Chenglong X iao
ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems
Embedded Systems Design Techniques
article

AI4DSE: Leveraging Dynamic Graph Neural Networks and Large Language Models for Optimizing High-Level Synthesis Design Space Exploration

Emmanuel Casseau, Lei Xu, Shanshan Wang, Chenglong X iao
article en

Abstract

High-Level Synthesis (HLS) Design Space Exploration (DSE) is essential for generating hardware designs that balance performance, power, and area (PPA). To optimize this process, existing works often employs message-passing neural networks (MPNNs) to predict quality of results (QoR). These predictors serve as evaluators in the DSE process, effectively bypassing the time-consuming estimations traditionally required by HLS tools. However, existing models based on MPNNs struggle with over-smoothing and limited expressiveness. Additionally, while meta-heuristic algorithms are widely used in DSE, they typically require extensive domain-specific knowledge to design operators and time-consuming tuning. To address these limitations, we propose ECoGNNs-LLMMHs, a framework that integrates graph neural networks with task-adaptive message passing and large language model-enhanced meta-heuristic algorithms. Compared with state-of-the-art works, ECoGNN exhibits lower prediction error in the post-HLS prediction task, with the error reduced by 57.27%. For post-implementation prediction tasks, ECoGNN demonstrates the lowest prediction errors, with average reductions of 17.6% for flip-flop (FF) usage, 33.7% for critical path (CP) delay, 26.3% for power consumption, 38.3% for digital signal processor (DSP) utilization, and 40.8% for BRAM usage. LLMMH variants can generate superior Pareto fronts compared to meta-heuristic algorithms in terms of average distance from the reference set (ADRS) with average improvements of 87.77%, respectively. Compared with the SOTA DSE approaches GNN-DSE and IRONMAN-PRO, LLMMH can reduce the ADRS by 68.17% and 61.53% respectively. Code and models are available at https://github.com/wslcccc/CoGNNs_LLMMH.

ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems
Institut de Recherche en Informatique et Systèmes Aléatoires (FR), Shantou University (CN), Institut für Regionale Innovation und Sozialforschung (DE)
Openalex Percentile: Top 2%
Embedded Systems Design Techniques
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