chiselverify
chisel
chiselverify | chisel | |
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1 | 25 | |
132 | 3,717 | |
2.3% | 1.1% | |
3.1 | 9.7 | |
23 days ago | 7 days ago | |
Scala | Scala | |
BSD 2-clause "Simplified" License | Apache License 2.0 |
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chiselverify
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Chisel/Firrtl Hardware Compiler Framework
Chisel is not HLS. It is a Scala library that lets you generate circuits on an RTL abstraction level. That means that you explicitly define every state element like registers and memories. But you can generate N registers inside a loop (or a map/foreach) instead of only 1 at a time. In HLS the compiler needs to somehow infer your registers and memories.
That said, I think one of the problems the google team was struggling with is that in traditional HW development there is design and a separate verification team. The design team bought into Chisel since it would let them generate hardware more quickly, but the verification team just tried to apply their traditional verification methods on the _generated_ Verilog. This is almost like trying to test the assembly that a C++ compiler generates instead of trying to test the C++ program since all your testing infrastructure is setup for testing assembly code and that is "what we have always been doing".
In order to catch verification up to modern Hardware Construction Languages [0] we need more powerful verification libraries that can allow us to build tests that can automatically adapt to the parameters that were supplied to the hardware generator. There are different groups working on this right now. The jury is still out on how to best solver the "verification gap". In case you are interested:
- https://github.com/chiselverify/chiselverify
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.