This commit uses parameter packs to sink `debug_item()` construction
into the `debug_info()`-specific `add()` overload. This makes the stack
space use sub-linear in typical case rather than linear (which is still
the worst case). Oddly, the stack slots that get allocated now are all
for the `0` literal for `lsb_offset`. This could be fixed by allocating
numbers statically but the existing reduction in stack use of ~98% for
a representative example (Minerva SoC) should be enough.
Before this commit, this function would create a temporary `std::string`
per debug item (and scope). After this commit, an additional overload is
used to push that down the call stack. This reduces stack usage by
about 50% more on top of the previous commit.
Before this commit, the creation of (constant) attribute maps caused
`debug_info()` (which is built with `__attribute__((optnone))`) to
consume large amounts of stack space; up to tens of megabytes. This
caused problems particularly on macOS, where the default stack size
is 512 KiB.
After this commit, `std::map` objects are no longer created inline in
the `debug_info()` function, but are compiled to and then expanded from
a string literal in a subroutine call. This reduces stack space usage
by about 50%.
In C and C++, a `\x` escape sequence consumes as many hexadecimal digits
as there are available, so it is not composable with arbitrary alnum
characters afterwards. An octal escape sequence like `\000` always has
fixed width, avoiding an issue where `\x01c` and `\x1c` produce the same
string.
This commit adds a `debug_scopes` container, which can collect metadata
about scopes in a design. Currently the only scope is that of a module.
A module scope can be represented either by a module and cell pair, or
a `$scopeinfo` cell in a flattened netlist. The metadata produced by
the C++ API is identical between these two cases, so flattening remains
transparent to a netlist with CXXRTL.
The existing `debug_items` method is deprecated. This isn't strictly
necessary, but the user experience is better if the path is provided
as e.g. `"top "` (as some VCD viewers make it awkward to select topmost
anonymous scope), and the upgrade flow encourages that, which should
reduce frustration later.
While the new `debug_items` method could still be broken in the future
as the C++ API permits, this seems unlikely since the debug information
can now capture all common netlist aspects and includes several
extension points (via `debug_item`, `debug_scope` types).
Also, naming of scope paths was normalized to `path` or `top_path`,
as applicable.
This is mostly useful for collecting coverage for the future `$check`
cell, where, depending on the flavor, formatting a message may not be
wanted even for a failed assertion.
The behavior of these format specifiers is highly specific to Verilog
(`$time` and `$realtime` are only defined relative to `$timescale`)
and may not fit other languages well, if at all. If they choose to use
it, it is now clear what they are opting into.
This commit also simplifies the CXXRTL code generation for these format
specifiers.
At the moment the only thing it allows is redirecting `$print` cell
output in a context-dependent manner. In the future, it will allow
customizing handling of `$check` cells (where the default is to abort),
of out-of-range memory accesses, and other runtime conditions with
effects.
This context object also allows a suitably written testbench to add
Verilog-compliant `$time`/`$realtime` handling, albeit it involves
the ceremony of defining a `performer` subclass. Most people will
want something like this to customize `$time`:
int64_t time = 0;
struct : public performer {
int64_t *time_ptr;
int64_t time() const override { return *time_ptr; }
} performer = { &time };
p_top.step(&performer);
This approach to tracking simulation time was a mistake that I did not
catch in review. It has several issues:
1. There is absolutely no requirement to call `step()`, as it is
a convenience function. In particular, `steps` will not be
incremented in submodules if `-noflatten` is used.
2. The semantics of `steps` does not match that of the Verilog `$time`
construct.
3. There is no way to make the semantics of `%t` match that of Verilog.
4. The `module` interface is intentionally very barebones. It is little
more than a container for three method pointers, `reset`, `eval`,
and `commit`. Adding ancillary data to it goes against this.
If similar functionality is introduced again it should probably be
a variable that is global per toplevel design using some object that is
unique for an entire hierarchy of modules, and ideally exposed via
the C API. For now, it is being removed (in this commit) and (in next
commit) the capability is being reintroduced through a context object
that can be specified for `eval()`.
This commit achieves three roughly equally important goals:
1. To bring the rendering code in kernel/fmt.cc and in cxxrtl.h as close
together as possible, with an ideal of only having the bigint library
as the difference between the render functions.
2. To make the treatment of `$time` and `$realtime` in CXXRTL closer to
the Verilog semantics, at least in the formatting code.
3. To change the code generator so that all of the `$print`-to-`string`
conversion code is contained inside of a closure.
There are two reasons to aim for goal (3):
a. Because output redirection through definition of a global ostream
object is neither convenient nor useful for environments where
the output is consumed by other code rather than being printed on
a terminal.
b. Because it may be desirable to, in some cases, ignore the `$print`
cells that are present in the netlist based on a runtime decision.
This is doubly true for an upcoming `$check` cell implementing
assertions, since failing a `$check` would by default cause a crash.
This avoids having to devirtualize them later to get performance back,
and simplifies the code a bit.
The change is prompted by the desire to add a similar observer object
to `eval()`, and a repeated consideration of whether the dispatch on
these should be virtual in first place.
The commit observer is a structure containing a callback that is invoked
whenever the `commit()` method changes a wire or a memory. This allows
code external to the compiled netlist to react to changes in the design
state in a very efficient way. One example of how this feature can be
used is an efficient implementation of record/replay.
Note that the VCD writer does not benefit from this feature because it
must be able to react to changes in any debug items and not just those
that contain design state.
Prior to this fix, the `CxxrtlBackend` used the entire path for the include
directive when a separated interface file is generated (via the `-header`
option). This commit updates the code to use the base name of the interface
file.
Since the C++11 standard is used by default, we cannot take advantage of
the `std::filesystem` to get the basename.
In preparation for substantial expansion of CXXRTL's runtime, this commit
reorganizes the files used by the implementation. Only minimal changes are
required in a consumer.
First, change:
-I$(yosys-config --datdir)/include
to:
-I$(yosys-config --datdir)/include/backends/cxxrtl/runtime
Second, change:
#include <backends/cxxrtl/cxxrtl.h>
to:
#include <cxxrtl/cxxrtl.h>
(and do the same for cxxrtl_vcd.h, etc.)
We add a new flow graph node type, PRINT_SYNC, as they don't get handled
with regular CELL_EVALs. We could probably move this grouping out of
the dump method.
Before this commit, values, wires, and memories with an initializer
were value-initialized in emitted C++ code. After this commit, all
values, wires, and memories are default-initialized, and the default
constructor of generated modules calls the reset() method, which
assigns the members that have an initializer.
Asherah Connor
Amiot Noe
Catherine
Henri Nurmi
Asherah Connor
Charlotte
Michael Nolan
Marcelina Kościelnicka