bsc
chisel
bsc | chisel | |
---|---|---|
8 | 25 | |
880 | 3,717 | |
1.0% | 1.1% | |
8.4 | 9.7 | |
25 days ago | 8 days ago | |
Haskell | Scala | |
GNU General Public License v3.0 or later | Apache License 2.0 |
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bsc
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Ao486_MiSTer: i486 core for the MiSTer FPGA gaming system
Many companies do just write entire modern SoCs in straight Verilog (maybe with some autogenerated Verilog hacked in there) with no other major organization tools aside from the typical project management stuff. The load-store unit of a modern CPU alone easily exceeds 10k lines of Verilog. It's a similar thing as people who work with kernels—after all, the page table management code in a modern operating system like Linux is absolutely monstrous but still people are able to understand it well enough to be able to make the changes they need and get out.
If you are interested in other languages which hope to make this sort of stuff easier, I'd recommend taking a look at design productivity languages like Chisel and it's associated Chipyard [1], SpinalHDL [2], and Bluespec [3]. Each of these are meant to make defining extremely complex hardware more manageable for humans and there's a lot of interesting work going on right now with each of them.
[1] https://github.com/ucb-bar/chipyard
[2] https://github.com/SpinalHDL/SpinalHDL
[3] https://github.com/B-Lang-org/bsc
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Learning VDHL after knowing Verilog
What are your thoughts on other HDLs like Chisel or BlueSpec when it comes to better type checking?
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Is “x' = f(x)” a programming paradigm?
In a previous project we used Haskell that compiled down to Verilog to design hardware. Think along the lines of BlueSpec or Clash. Haskell would force you to spell out the new state as a function of the old state of the system. This would let us do gate-level simulations of the hardware we designed. Coupled with Haskell's penchant for using primes to mean "the new value of", stuff like x' = f x was very common.
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I'm starting a project to make a Rust-like hardware description language and I need your opinions.
You should look at Bluespec, they are doing some interesting stuff.
- Verilog Is Weird
- Bluespec hardware design language and simulation tools
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MyHDL: Using Python as a hardware description and verification language
And I've been involved in a project that's making heavy use of Bluespec: https://github.com/B-Lang-org/bsc/
Same problem though - you have to transpile it down to Verilog to use it in anything beyond a simulation.
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FPGA dev board that's cheap, simple and supported by OSS toolchain
FPGA Thread: Bluespec SystemVerilog is now completely open source, very nice HDL although quite opinionated.
https://github.com/B-Lang-org/bsc
it's Haskell underneath (https://xkcd.com/356/)
chisel
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Calyx: Intermediate Language for Hardware Accelerators
My first instinct was to ask "Does this play well with CIRCT?" And thankfully they answer that right away in the README.
I'm personally of the opinion that there is a LOT of room for improvement in the hardware design tooling space, but a combination of market consolidation, huge pressure to meet deadlines, and an existing functional pipeline of Verilog/VHDL talent is preventing changes.
That's not to say "Verilog/VHDL are bad", because clearly they've been good enough to support nearly all of the wonderful designs powering today's devices. But it is to say, "the startup scene for hardware will continue to look anemic compared to the SaaS scene until someone gives me all of the niceties I have for building SaaS tools in software."
A huge amount of ideas (and entire designs) start off as software sims, which enables kernel/compiler engineers to start building out support for new hardware before it's manufactured.
There is some interesting work going on at SiFive building hardware with Chisel[1], as well as some interesting work lead by a professor at William and Mary to improve simulations[2].
1: https://www.chisel-lang.org
2: https://github.com/sarchlab/akita
- Chisel: A Modern Hardware Design Language
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I may be creating an abomination
Inspired by Scala. Which can do a whole lot more, and worse. The currently biggest competitor to decades old hardware description languages is a Scala DSL.
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An addressable little explored language gap: HDL - Hardware Description Languages, any language used for electronic circuit design, description, and specs
Already mentioned Chisel: https://www.chisel-lang.org/
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Trying to learn and work with FPGAs
I'm also a hobbyist. There are a number of alternative HDLs out there, and as hobbyists we can deviate more from the mainstream of (System)Verilog and VHDL if we desire, though you'll still need to be able to read them. In the past I've done Verilog, but lately I've been using SpinalHDL and have been really enjoying it. Its close relative Chisel also makes appearances in the RISC-V space.
- Alternate HDL language and Physical Design/EDA tools?
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Learning VDHL after knowing Verilog
What are your thoughts on other HDLs like Chisel or BlueSpec when it comes to better type checking?
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Learning Verilog and FPGA
I started playing with FPGAs and HDLs a couple years ago with no hardware design background (I'm mostly a software architect/engineer) and in the end found that a "higher-level" HDL suited me better.
I chose Chisel (https://www.chisel-lang.org/) an HDL based on Scala (technically a Scala DSL) which can provide many facilities to hardware generation.
I'd highly advise looking into it although also knowing Verilog helps a lot.
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If you keep clicking "Give 15 seconds" on Lichess, eventually it overflows to a negative number and you win
But some go further and ask "what if when we add a soldering station on top of it?"
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What universities have good PhD programmes in digital design?
In recent years Chisel HDL, RISC V, and SiFive came out of their architecture group, to name a few.
What are some alternatives?
UPduino-v3.0 - UPduino 3.0: new 4 layer layout, various other improvements
SpinalHDL - Scala based HDL
PipelineC - A C-like hardware description language (HDL) adding high level synthesis(HLS)-like automatic pipelining as a language construct/compiler feature.
myhdl - The MyHDL development repository
linux-on-litex-vexriscv - Linux on LiteX-VexRiscv
amaranth - A modern hardware definition language and toolchain based on Python
rustylog - A Rust-like Hardware Description Language transpiled to Verilog
cocotb - cocotb, a coroutine based cosimulation library for writing VHDL and Verilog testbenches in Python
fomu-toolchain - A collection of tools for developing for Fomu
skywater-pdk - Open source process design kit for usage with SkyWater Technology Foundry's 130nm node.
clash-ghc - Haskell to VHDL/Verilog/SystemVerilog compiler
circt - Circuit IR Compilers and Tools