The increasing complexity of algorithms in embedded applications has amplified the demand for high-performance computing. Heterogeneous embedded systems, particularly FPGA-based systems-on-chip (SoCs), enhance execution speed by integrating hardware accelerator intellectual property (IP) cores. However, traditional low-level IP-core design presents significant challenges. High-level synthesis (HLS) offers a promising alternative, enabling efficient FPGA development through high-level programming languages. Yet, effective methodologies for designing and evaluating heterogeneous FPGA-based SoCs remain crucial. This study surveys HLS tools and design concepts and presents the development of the AHA IP cores, a set of five benchmarking accelerators for rapid Zynq-based SoC evaluation. These accelerators target compute-intensive tasks, including matrix multiplication, Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), Back-Propagation Neural Network (BPNN), and Artificial Neural Network (ANN). We establish a streamlined design flow using AMD-Xilinx tools for rapid prototyping and testing FPGA-based heterogeneous platforms. We outline criteria for selecting algorithms to improve speed and resource efficiency in HLS design. Our performance evaluation across various configurations highlights performance–resource trade-offs and demonstrates that ANN and BPNN achieve significant parallelism, while AES optimization increases resource utilization the most. Matrix multiplication shows strong optimization potential, whereas FFT is constrained by data dependencies.