yosys -- Yosys Open SYnthesis Suite

Copyright (C) 2012 - 2024  Claire Xenia Wolf <claire@yosyshq.com>

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yosys – Yosys Open SYnthesis Suite

This is a framework for RTL synthesis tools. It currently has extensive Verilog-2005 support and provides a basic set of synthesis algorithms for various application domains.

Yosys can be adapted to perform any synthesis job by combining the existing passes (algorithms) using synthesis scripts and adding additional passes as needed by extending the yosys C++ code base.

Yosys is free software licensed under the ISC license (a GPL compatible license that is similar in terms to the MIT license or the 2-clause BSD license).

Web Site and Other Resources

More information and documentation can be found on the Yosys web site:

• https://yosyshq.net/yosys/

The "Documentation" page on the web site contains links to more resources, including a manual that even describes some of the Yosys internals:

• https://yosyshq.net/yosys/documentation.html

The directory guidelines contains additional information for people interested in using the Yosys C++ APIs.

Users interested in formal verification might want to use the formal verification front-end for Yosys, SymbiYosys:

• https://symbiyosys.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
• https://github.com/YosysHQ/SymbiYosys

Installation

Yosys is part of the Tabby CAD Suite and the OSS CAD Suite! The easiest way to use yosys is to install the binary software suite, which contains all required dependencies and related tools.

• Contact YosysHQ for a Tabby CAD Suite Evaluation License and download link
• OR go to https://github.com/YosysHQ/oss-cad-suite-build/releases to download the free OSS CAD Suite
• Follow the Install Instructions on GitHub

Make sure to get a Tabby CAD Suite Evaluation License if you need features such as industry-grade SystemVerilog and VHDL parsers!

For more information about the difference between Tabby CAD Suite and the OSS CAD Suite, please visit https://www.yosyshq.com/tabby-cad-datasheet

Many Linux distributions also provide Yosys binaries, some more up to date than others. Check with your package manager!

Building from Source

You need a C++ compiler with C++17 support (up-to-date CLANG or GCC is recommended) and some standard tools such as GNU Flex, GNU Bison, and GNU Make. TCL, readline and libffi are optional (see ENABLE_* settings in Makefile). Xdot (graphviz) is used by the show command in yosys to display schematics.

For example on Ubuntu Linux 16.04 LTS the following commands will install all prerequisites for building yosys:

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential clang lld bison flex \
	libreadline-dev gawk tcl-dev libffi-dev git \
	graphviz xdot pkg-config python3 libboost-system-dev \
	libboost-python-dev libboost-filesystem-dev zlib1g-dev

Similarily, on Mac OS X Homebrew can be used to install dependencies (from within cloned yosys repository):

$ brew tap Homebrew/bundle && brew bundle

or MacPorts:

$ sudo port install bison flex readline gawk libffi \
	git graphviz pkgconfig python36 boost zlib tcl

On FreeBSD use the following command to install all prerequisites:

# pkg install bison flex readline gawk libffi\
	git graphviz pkgconf python3 python36 tcl-wrapper boost-libs

On FreeBSD system use gmake instead of make. To run tests use: % MAKE=gmake CC=cc gmake test

For Cygwin use the following command to install all prerequisites, or select these additional packages:

setup-x86_64.exe -q --packages=bison,flex,gcc-core,gcc-g++,git,libffi-devel,libreadline-devel,make,pkg-config,python3,tcl-devel,boost-build,zlib-devel

The environment variable CXX can be used to control the C++ compiler used, or run one of the following:

$ make config-clang
$ make config-gcc

Note that these will result in make ignoring the CXX environment variable, unless CXX is assigned in the call to make, e.g.

$ make CXX=$CXX

The Makefile has many variables influencing the build process. These can be adjusted by modifying the Makefile.conf file which is created at the make config-... step (see above), or they can be set by passing an option to the make command directly.

For example, if you have clang, and (a compatible version of) ld.lld available in PATH, it's recommended to speed up incremental builds with lld by enabling LTO:

$ make ENABLE_LTO=1

For other compilers and build configurations it might be necessary to make some changes to the config section of the Makefile.

$ vi Makefile            # ..or..
$ vi Makefile.conf

To build Yosys simply type 'make' in this directory.

$ make
$ sudo make install

Note that this also downloads, builds and installs ABC (using yosys-abc as executable name).

Tests are located in the tests subdirectory and can be executed using the test target. Note that you need gawk as well as a recent version of iverilog (i.e. build from git). Then, execute tests via:

$ make test

To use a separate (out-of-tree) build directory, provide a path to the Makefile.

$ mkdir build; cd build
$ make -f ../Makefile

Out-of-tree builds require a clean source tree.

Getting Started

Yosys can be used with the interactive command shell, with synthesis scripts or with command line arguments. Let's perform a simple synthesis job using the interactive command shell:

$ ./yosys
yosys>

the command help can be used to print a list of all available commands and help <command> to print details on the specified command:

yosys> help help

reading and elaborating the design using the Verilog frontend:

yosys> read -sv tests/simple/fiedler-cooley.v
yosys> hierarchy -top up3down5

writing the design to the console in the RTLIL format used by Yosys internally:

yosys> write_rtlil

convert processes (always blocks) to netlist elements and perform some simple optimizations:

yosys> proc; opt

display design netlist using xdot:

yosys> show

the same thing using gv as postscript viewer:

yosys> show -format ps -viewer gv

translating netlist to gate logic and perform some simple optimizations:

yosys> techmap; opt

write design netlist to a new Verilog file:

yosys> write_verilog synth.v

or using a simple synthesis script:

$ cat synth.ys
read -sv tests/simple/fiedler-cooley.v
hierarchy -top up3down5
proc; opt; techmap; opt
write_verilog synth.v

$ ./yosys synth.ys

If ABC is enabled in the Yosys build configuration and a cell library is given in the liberty file mycells.lib, the following synthesis script will synthesize for the given cell library:

# read design
read -sv tests/simple/fiedler-cooley.v
hierarchy -top up3down5

# the high-level stuff
proc; fsm; opt; memory; opt

# mapping to internal cell library
techmap; opt

# mapping flip-flops to mycells.lib
dfflibmap -liberty mycells.lib

# mapping logic to mycells.lib
abc -liberty mycells.lib

# cleanup
clean

If you do not have a liberty file but want to test this synthesis script, you can use the file examples/cmos/cmos_cells.lib from the yosys sources as simple example.

Liberty file downloads for and information about free and open ASIC standard cell libraries can be found here:

• http://www.vlsitechnology.org/html/libraries.html
• http://www.vlsitechnology.org/synopsys/vsclib013.lib

The command synth provides a good default synthesis script (see help synth):

read -sv tests/simple/fiedler-cooley.v
synth -top up3down5

# mapping to target cells
dfflibmap -liberty mycells.lib
abc -liberty mycells.lib
clean

The command prep provides a good default word-level synthesis script, as used in SMT-based formal verification.

Unsupported Verilog-2005 Features

The following Verilog-2005 features are not supported by Yosys and there are currently no plans to add support for them:

• Non-synthesizable language features as defined in IEC 62142(E):2005 / IEEE Std. 1364.1(E):2002

• The tri, triand and trior net types

• The config and disable keywords and library map files

Verilog Attributes and non-standard features

• The full_case attribute on case statements is supported (also the non-standard // synopsys full_case directive)

• The parallel_case attribute on case statements is supported (also the non-standard // synopsys parallel_case directive)

• The // synopsys translate_off and // synopsys translate_on directives are also supported (but the use of `ifdef .. `endif is strongly recommended instead).

• The nomem2reg attribute on modules or arrays prohibits the automatic early conversion of arrays to separate registers. This is potentially dangerous. Usually the front-end has good reasons for converting an array to a list of registers. Prohibiting this step will likely result in incorrect synthesis results.

• The mem2reg attribute on modules or arrays forces the early conversion of arrays to separate registers.

• The nomeminit attribute on modules or arrays prohibits the creation of initialized memories. This effectively puts mem2reg on all memories that are written to in an initial block and are not ROMs.

• The nolatches attribute on modules or always-blocks prohibits the generation of logic-loops for latches. Instead all not explicitly assigned values default to x-bits. This does not affect clocked storage elements such as flip-flops.

• The nosync attribute on registers prohibits the generation of a storage element. The register itself will always have all bits set to 'x' (undefined). The variable may only be used as blocking assigned temporary variable within an always block. This is mostly used internally by Yosys to synthesize Verilog functions and access arrays.

• The nowrshmsk attribute on a register prohibits the generation of shift-and-mask type circuits for writing to bit slices of that register.

• The onehot attribute on wires mark them as one-hot state register. This is used for example for memory port sharing and set by the fsm_map pass.

• The blackbox attribute on modules is used to mark empty stub modules that have the same ports as the real thing but do not contain information on the internal configuration. This modules are only used by the synthesis passes to identify input and output ports of cells. The Verilog backend also does not output blackbox modules on default. read_verilog, unless called with -noblackbox will automatically set the blackbox attribute on any empty module it reads.

• The noblackbox attribute set on an empty module prevents read_verilog from automatically setting the blackbox attribute on the module.

• The whitebox attribute on modules triggers the same behavior as blackbox, but is for whitebox modules, i.e. library modules that contain a behavioral model of the cell type.

• The lib_whitebox attribute overwrites whitebox when read_verilog is run in -lib mode. Otherwise it's automatically removed.

• The dynports attribute is used by the Verilog front-end to mark modules that have ports with a width that depends on a parameter.

• The hdlname attribute is used by some passes to document the original (HDL) name of a module when renaming a module. It should contain a single name, or, when describing a hierarchical name in a flattened design, multiple names separated by a single space character.

• The keep attribute on cells and wires is used to mark objects that should never be removed by the optimizer. This is used for example for cells that have hidden connections that are not part of the netlist, such as IO pads. Setting the keep attribute on a module has the same effect as setting it on all instances of the module.

• The keep_hierarchy attribute on cells and modules keeps the flatten command from flattening the indicated cells and modules.

• The init attribute on wires is set by the frontend when a register is initialized "FPGA-style" with reg foo = val. It can be used during synthesis to add the necessary reset logic.

• The top attribute on a module marks this module as the top of the design hierarchy. The hierarchy command sets this attribute when called with -top. Other commands, such as flatten and various backends use this attribute to determine the top module.

• The src attribute is set on cells and wires created by to the string <hdl-file-name>:<line-number> by the HDL front-end and is then carried through the synthesis. When entities are combined, a new |-separated string is created that contains all the string from the original entities.

• The defaultvalue attribute is used to store default values for module inputs. The attribute is attached to the input wire by the HDL front-end when the input is declared with a default value.

• The parameter and localparam attributes are used to mark wires that represent module parameters or localparams (when the HDL front-end is run in -pwires mode).

• Wires marked with the hierconn attribute are connected to wires with the same name (format cell_name.identifier) when they are imported from sub-modules by flatten.

• The clkbuf_driver attribute can be set on an output port of a blackbox module to mark it as a clock buffer output, and thus prevent clkbufmap from inserting another clock buffer on a net driven by such output.

• The clkbuf_sink attribute can be set on an input port of a module to request clock buffer insertion by the clkbufmap pass.

• The clkbuf_inv attribute can be set on an output port of a module with the value set to the name of an input port of that module. When the clkbufmap would otherwise insert a clock buffer on this output, it will instead try inserting the clock buffer on the input port (this is used to implement clock inverter cells that clock buffer insertion will "see through").

• The clkbuf_inhibit is the default attribute to set on a wire to prevent automatic clock buffer insertion by clkbufmap. This behaviour can be overridden by providing a custom selection to clkbufmap.

• The invertible_pin attribute can be set on a port to mark it as invertible via a cell parameter. The name of the inversion parameter is specified as the value of this attribute. The value of the inversion parameter must be of the same width as the port, with 1 indicating an inverted bit and 0 indicating a non-inverted bit.

• The iopad_external_pin attribute on a blackbox module's port marks it as the external-facing pin of an I/O pad, and prevents iopadmap from inserting another pad cell on it.

• The module attribute abc9_lut is an integer attribute indicating to abc9 that this module describes a LUT with an area cost of this value, and propagation delays described using specify statements.

• The module attribute abc9_box is a boolean specifying a black/white-box definition, with propagation delays described using specify statements, for use by abc9.

• The port attribute abc9_carry marks the carry-in (if an input port) and carry-out (if output port) ports of a box. This information is necessary for abc9 to preserve the integrity of carry-chains. Specifying this attribute onto a bus port will affect only its most significant bit.

• The module attribute abc9_flop is a boolean marking the module as a flip-flop. This allows abc9 to analyse its contents in order to perform sequential synthesis.

• The frontend sets attributes always_comb, always_latch and always_ff on processes derived from SystemVerilog style always blocks according to the type of the always. These are checked for correctness in proc_dlatch.

• The cell attribute wildcard_port_conns represents wildcard port connections (SystemVerilog .*). These are resolved to concrete connections to matching wires in hierarchy.

• In addition to the (* ... *) attribute syntax, Yosys supports the non-standard {* ... *} attribute syntax to set default attributes for everything that comes after the {* ... *} statement. (Reset by adding an empty {* *} statement.)

• In module parameter and port declarations, and cell port and parameter lists, a trailing comma is ignored. This simplifies writing Verilog code generators a bit in some cases.

• Modules can be declared with module mod_name(...); (with three dots instead of a list of module ports). With this syntax it is sufficient to simply declare a module port as 'input' or 'output' in the module body.

• When defining a macro with `define, all text between triple double quotes is interpreted as macro body, even if it contains unescaped newlines. The triple double quotes are removed from the macro body. For example:

  `define MY_MACRO(a, b) """
     assign a = 23;
     assign b = 42;
  """
  

• The attribute via_celltype can be used to implement a Verilog task or function by instantiating the specified cell type. The value is the name of the cell type to use. For functions the name of the output port can be specified by appending it to the cell type separated by a whitespace. The body of the task or function is unused in this case and can be used to specify a behavioral model of the cell type for simulation. For example:

  module my_add3(A, B, C, Y);
    parameter WIDTH = 8;
    input [WIDTH-1:0] A, B, C;
    output [WIDTH-1:0] Y;
    ...
  endmodule
  
  module top;
    ...
    (* via_celltype = "my_add3 Y" *)
    (* via_celltype_defparam_WIDTH = 32 *)
    function [31:0] add3;
      input [31:0] A, B, C;
      begin
        add3 = A + B + C;
      end
    endfunction
    ...
  endmodule
  

• The wiretype attribute is added by the verilog parser for wires of a typedef'd type to indicate the type identifier.

• Various enum_value_{value} attributes are added to wires of an enumerated type to give a map of possible enum items to their values.

• The enum_base_type attribute is added to enum items to indicate which enum they belong to (enums -- anonymous and otherwise -- are automatically named with an auto-incrementing counter). Note that enums are currently not strongly typed.

• A limited subset of DPI-C functions is supported. The plugin mechanism (see help plugin) can be used to load .so files with implementations of DPI-C routines. As a non-standard extension it is possible to specify a plugin alias using the <alias>: syntax. For example:

  module dpitest;
    import "DPI-C" function foo:round = real my_round (real);
    parameter real r = my_round(12.345);
  endmodule
  
  $ yosys -p 'plugin -a foo -i /lib/libm.so; read_verilog dpitest.v'
  

• Sized constants (the syntax <size>'s?[bodh]<value>) support constant expressions as <size>. If the expression is not a simple identifier, it must be put in parentheses. Examples: WIDTH'd42, (4+2)'b101010

• The system tasks $finish, $stop and $display are supported in initial blocks in an unconditional context (only if/case statements on expressions over parameters and constant values are allowed). The intended use for this is synthesis-time DRC.

• There is limited support for converting specify .. endspecify statements to special $specify2, $specify3, and $specrule cells, for use in blackboxes and whiteboxes. Use read_verilog -specify to enable this functionality. (By default these blocks are ignored.)

• The reprocess_after internal attribute is used by the Verilog frontend to mark cells with bindings which might depend on the specified instantiated module. Modules with such cells will be reprocessed during the hierarchy pass once the referenced module definition(s) become available.

• The smtlib2_module attribute can be set on a blackbox module to specify a formal model directly using SMT-LIB 2. For such a module, the smtlib2_comb_expr attribute can be used on output ports to define their value using an SMT-LIB 2 expression. For example:

  (* blackbox *)
  (* smtlib2_module *)
  module submod(a, b);
    input [7:0] a;
    (* smtlib2_comb_expr = "(bvnot a)" *)
    output [7:0] b;
  endmodule
  

Non-standard or SystemVerilog features for formal verification

• Support for assert, assume, restrict, and cover is enabled when read_verilog is called with -formal.

• The system task $initstate evaluates to 1 in the initial state and to 0 otherwise.

• The system function $anyconst evaluates to any constant value. This is equivalent to declaring a reg as rand const, but also works outside of checkers. (Yosys also supports rand const outside checkers.)

• The system function $anyseq evaluates to any value, possibly a different value in each cycle. This is equivalent to declaring a reg as rand, but also works outside of checkers. (Yosys also supports rand variables outside checkers.)

• The system functions $allconst and $allseq can be used to construct formal exist-forall problems. Assumptions only hold if the trace satisfies the assumption for all $allconst/$allseq values. For assertions and cover statements it is sufficient if just one $allconst/$allseq value triggers the property (similar to $anyconst/$anyseq).

• Wires/registers declared using the anyconst/anyseq/allconst/allseq attribute (for example (* anyconst *) reg [7:0] foobar;) will behave as if driven by a $anyconst/$anyseq/$allconst/$allseq function.

• The SystemVerilog tasks $past, $stable, $rose and $fell are supported in any clocked block.

• The syntax @($global_clock) can be used to create FFs that have no explicit clock input ($ff cells). The same can be achieved by using @(posedge <netname>) or @(negedge <netname>) when <netname> is marked with the (* gclk *) Verilog attribute.

Supported features from SystemVerilog

When read_verilog is called with -sv, it accepts some language features from SystemVerilog:

• The assert statement from SystemVerilog is supported in its most basic form. In module context: assert property (<expression>); and within an always block: assert(<expression>);. It is transformed to an $assert cell.

• The assume, restrict, and cover statements from SystemVerilog are also supported. The same limitations as with the assert statement apply.

• The keywords always_comb, always_ff and always_latch, logic and bit are supported.

• Declaring free variables with rand and rand const is supported.

• Checkers without a port list that do not need to be instantiated (but instead behave like a named block) are supported.

• SystemVerilog packages are supported. Once a SystemVerilog file is read into a design with read_verilog, all its packages are available to SystemVerilog files being read into the same design afterwards.

• typedefs are supported (including inside packages)

  • type casts are currently not supported

• enums are supported (including inside packages)

  • but are currently not strongly typed

• packed structs and unions are supported

  • arrays of packed structs/unions are currently not supported
  • structure literals are currently not supported

• multidimensional arrays are supported

  • array assignment of unpacked arrays is currently not supported
  • array literals are currently not supported

• SystemVerilog interfaces (SVIs) are supported. Modports for specifying whether ports are inputs or outputs are supported.

• Assignments within expressions are supported.

Building the documentation

Note that there is no need to build the manual if you just want to read it. Simply visit https://yosys.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ instead.

In addition to those packages listed above for building Yosys from source, the following are used for building the website:

$ sudo apt install pdf2svg faketime

PDFLaTeX, included with most LaTeX distributions, is also needed during the build process for the website. Or, run the following:

$ sudo apt install texlive-latex-base texlive-latex-extra latexmk

The Python package, Sphinx, is needed along with those listed in docs/source/requirements.txt:

$ pip install -U sphinx -r docs/source/requirements.txt

From the root of the repository, run make docs. This will build/rebuild yosys as necessary before generating the website documentation from the yosys help commands. To build for pdf instead of html, call make docs DOC_TARGET=latexpdf.