HINT: Toward an Executable Hardware-Intent Representation Layer for LLM-Driven RTL Generation
Generating implementation-quality RTL with large language models (LLMs) remains difficult because direct generation must resolve microarchitecture while simultaneously producing and debugging low-level code. We present HINT, an executable hardware-intent intermediate representation layer between behavioral specifications or executable oracles and RTL. HINT makes RTL-relevant microarchitecture explicit, supports pre-RTL checking, and supplies explicit RTL-lowering obligations. We evaluate HINT using both a minimal single-agent flow and a full staged workflow. Across seven operator cases, the HINT-mediated route, with no post-synthesis QoR refinement, produces contract-compliant synthesizable RTL on 7/7 cases; Direct C2RTL and C2HLSC apply to five cases and succeed on 5/5 and 1/5, respectively. Under matched Design Compiler synthesis, HINT reduces area by 5.0\%--26.2\% relative to five manual RTL implementations and by 8.9\%--86.1\% relative to five accepted Direct C2RTL results. RealBench AES and SDC, together with a Vortex VPU synthesizing to 561.67k~$\mu\mathrm{m}^2$, further demonstrate specification-driven, protocol-rich, memory-rich, and hierarchical designs. In the controlled operator study, the HINT-mediated route shows better observed convergence and avoids the severe implementation-quality degradation seen in several direct-generation results.