yosys/manual/APPNOTE_011_Design_Investigation.tex

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\def\FIXME{{\color{red}\bf FIXME}}

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\begin{document}

\title{Yosys Application Note 011: \\ Interactive Design Investigation}
\author{Clifford Wolf \\ November 2013}
\maketitle

\begin{abstract}
Yosys \cite{yosys} can be a great environment for building custom synthesis
flows \cite{glaserwolf}. It can also be an excellent tool for teaching and
learning Verilog based RTL synthesis. In both applications it is of great
importance to be able to analyze the designs produces easily.

This Yosys application note covers the generation of circuit diagrams with the
Yosys {\tt show} command and the selection of interesting parts of the circuit
using the {\tt select} command.
\end{abstract}

\section{Installation and Prerequisites}

This Application Note is based on GIT Rev. {\tt \FIXME} from \FIXME{} of
Yosys \cite{yosys}. The {\tt README} file covers how to install Yosys. The
{\tt show} command requires a working installation of GraphViz \cite{graphviz}
for generating the actual circuit diagrams. Yosys must be build with Qt
support in order to activate the built-in SVG viewer. Alternatively an
external viewer can be used.

\section{Introduction to the {\tt show} command}

The {\tt show} command generates a circuit diagram for the design in its
current state. Various options can be used to change the appearance of the
circuit diagram, set the name and format for the output file, and so forth.
When called without any special options, it saves the circuit diagram in
a temporary file and launches {\tt yosys-svgviewer} to display the diagram.
Subsequent calls to {\tt show} re-use the {\tt yosys-svgviewer} instance
(if still running).

Fig.~\ref{example_src} shows a simple synthesis script and Verilog file that
demonstrates the usage of {\tt show} in a simple setting. Note that {\tt show}
is called with the {\tt -pause} option, that halts execution of the Yosys
script until the user presses the Enter key. The {\tt show -pause} command
also allows the user to enter an interactive shell to further investigate the
circuit before continuing synthesis.

\begin{figure}[b]
\begin{lstlisting}
$ cat example.ys
read_verilog example.v
show -pause
proc
show -pause
opt
show -pause

$ cat example.v
module example(input clk, a, b, c,
               output reg [1:0] y);
    always @(posedge clk)
        if (c)
            y <= c ? a + b : 2'd0;
endmodule
\end{lstlisting}
\caption{Yosys script with {\tt show} commands and example design}
\label{example_src}
\end{figure}

So this script, when executed, will show the design after each of the three
synthesis commands. The generated circuit diagrams are shown in Fig.~\ref{example_out}.

The first diagram (from top to bottom) shows the design directly after being
read by the Verilog front-end. Input and output ports are visualized using
octagonal shapes. Cells are visualized as rectangles with inputs on the left
and outputs on the right side. The cell labels are two lines long: The first line
contains the cell name (or a {\tt \_<number\_} placeholder for cells without
a name from the original Verilog, such as cells created from Verilog
expressions) and the second line contains the cell type. Internal cell types
are prefixed with a dollar sign. The Yosys manual contains a chapter on the
internal cell library used in Yosys.

Constants are shown as ellipses with the constant value as label. The syntax
{\tt <bit\_width>'<bits>} is used for for constants that are not 32-bit wide
and/or contain bits that are not 0 or 1 (but {\tt x} or {\tt z}). Ordinary
32-bit constants are written using decimal numbers.

Single-bit signals are shown as thin arrows pointing from the driver to the
load. Signals that are multiple bits wide are shown as think arrows.

Finally {\it processes\/} are shown in boxes with round corners. Processes
are Yosys' internal representation of the decision-trees and synchronization
events modelled in a Verilog {\tt always}-block. The label reads {\tt PROC} in the
first line and contains the source code location of the original {\tt
always}-block in the 2nd line. Not how the multiplexer from the {\tt ?:}-expression
is represented as a {\tt \$mux} cell but the multiplexer from the {\tt if}-statement
is yet still hidden within the process.

\medskip

The {\tt proc} command transforms the process from the first diagram into a
multiplexer and a d-type flip-flip, which brings us to the 2nd diagram.

Note that the auto-generated numbers for the cells have changed since the first
diagram, because they are just placeholders . We will cover how to avoid this
later in this document.


\begin{figure}[b!]
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{APPNOTE_011_Design_Investigation/example_00.pdf}
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{APPNOTE_011_Design_Investigation/example_01.pdf}
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{APPNOTE_011_Design_Investigation/example_02.pdf}
\caption{Output of the three {\tt show} commands from Fig.~\ref{example_src}}
\label{example_out}
\end{figure}

Also note that the design now contains two instances of a {\tt BUF}-node. The
Rhombus shape to the right is a dangling wire. (Wire nodes are only shown if
they are dangling or have names assigned from the Verilog input.) This are
artefacts left behind by the {\tt proc}-command. It is quite usual to see such
artefacts after calling commands that perform changes in the design, as most
commands only care about doing the transformation in a foolproof way, not about
cleaning up after them. The next call to {\tt clean} (or {\tt opt}, which
includes {\tt clean} as one of its operations) will clean up this artefacts.
This operation is so common in Yosys scripts that it can simply be abbreviated
by using the {\tt ;;} token, which doubles as separator for commands. Unless
one wants to specifically analyze this artefacts left behind some operations,
it is therefore recommended to call {\tt clean} before calling {\tt show}.

\medskip

In this script we directly call {\tt opt} as next step, which finally leads us to
the 3rd diagram in Fig.~\ref{example_out}. Here we see that the {\tt opt} command
not only has removed the artifacts left behind by {\tt proc}, but also determined
correctly that it can remove the first {\tt \$mux} cell without changing the behavior
of the circuit.

\begin{figure}[b!]
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth,trim=0 2cm 0 0]{APPNOTE_011_Design_Investigation/splice.pdf}
\caption{Output of {\tt yosys -p 'proc; opt; show' splice.v}}
\label{example_src}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[b!]
\begin{lstlisting}
module splice_demo(a, b, c, d, e, f, x, y);

input [1:0] a, b, c, d, e, f;
output [1:0] x = {a[0], a[1]};

output [11:0] y;
assign {y[11:4], y[1:0], y[3:2]} =
		{a, b, -{c, d}, ~{e, f}};

endmodule
\end{lstlisting}
\caption{\tt splice.v}
\label{example_src}
\end{figure}

\FIXME{} --- Splicing, Cell libraries

\section{Navigating the design}

\FIXME{} --- cd and ls, multi-page diagrams, select, cones and boolean operations

\section{Advanced investigation techniques}

\FIXME{} --- dump, eval, sat

\begin{thebibliography}{9}

\bibitem{yosys}
Clifford Wolf. The Yosys Open SYnthesis Suite.
\url{http://www.clifford.at/yosys/}

\bibitem{glaserwolf}
Johann Glaser. Clifford Wolf. Methodology and Example-Driven Interconnect
Synthesis for Designing Heterogeneous Coarse-Grain Reconfigurable
Architectures. In: Jan Haase (Editor). {\it Models, Methods, and Tools for Complex Chip Design.
Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering. Volume 265, 2014, pp 201-221.\/}
\href{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01418-0_12}{DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-01418-0\_12}

\bibitem{graphviz}
Graphviz - Graph Visualization Software.
\url{http://www.graphviz.org/}

\end{thebibliography}

\end{document}