Core Tile

This module includes the Sargantana core, as well as the iCache, dCache (HPDCache from OpenHardware), and MMU to make it all work.

Table of Contents

• Core Tile
  • Table of Contents
  • 1. Installing the dependencies
  • 2. Building the simulator
    • 2.1 Verilator
    • 2.2 Questasim
  • 3. Running simulations
    • 3.1 Optional parameters
    • 3.2 Running the ISA tests or benchmarks
  • 4. Emulating on an FPGA
  • 5. Design
  • 6. License
  • 7. Authors
  • 8. Citation

1. Installing the dependencies

The following software is required to build the simulator, bootrom, and the RISC-V tests and benchmarks:

• gcc >= 10.5
• verilator >= 5.004
• riscv64-unknown-elf-gcc >= 12.0
• device-tree-compiler (any recent version should work)

Optionally, to visualize waveforms the following software can be used:

• gtkwave

Optionally, to visualize pipeline diagrams, the following software can be used:

• konata

2. Building the simulator

2.1 Verilator

To build the simulator run make -j$(nproc) sim from the root folder of the project. That should build the bootrom and the simulator itself (as well as some needed libraries from riscv-isa-sim).

2.2 Questasim

To use questasim, first compile the bootrom and helper libraries using make -j$(nproc) bootrom.hex libdisasm. Everything else will be compiled by Questasim at runtime.

3. Running simulations

To run a simulation using Verilator, use the following command:

./sim +load=<path/to/binary>

To run a simulation using Questasim (headless), use the following command:

./simulator/questa/sim.sh -c -suppress 3999 +load=<path/to/binary>

To run the simulations using Questasim's GUI, remove the -c argument of the previous command.

3.1 Optional parameters

• +vcd[=path/to/waveform.vcd] Generates a waveform of the simulation. By default, it will save it as dump.vcd.
• +commit_log[=path/to/log.txt] Generates a log of the commited instructions. By default, it will save it as signature.txt.
• +konata_dump[=path/to/konata.txt] Generates a dump of the pipeline to later be visualized as a pipeline diagram using konata. By default, it will save it as konata.txt.

The output of all the optional parameters can be overriden by appending = and the path of the desired output.

3.2 Running the ISA tests or benchmarks

1. Build the isa tests or benchmarks using make -j$(nproc) build-isa-tests or make -j$(nproc) build-benchmarks respectively.
2. Run all test or benchmarks using make run-isa-tests or make run-benchmarks.

The programs can be run individually using:

• <simulator> +load=<tb/tb_isa_tests/build/isa/<binary> or
• <simulator> +load=<benchmarks/benchmarks/<binary>

4. Emulating on an FPGA

Coming soon.

5. Design

Coming soon.

6. License

This work is licensed under the Solderpad Hardware License v2.1.

For more information, check the LICENSE file.

7. Authors

The list of authors can be found in the CONTRIBUTORS.md file.

8. Citation

This work is derived and based upon Sargantana: Víctor Soria-Pardos, Max Doblas, Guillem López-Paradís, Gerard Candón, Narcís Rodas, Xavier Carril, Pau Fontova-Musté, Neiel Leyva, Santiago Marco-Sola, and Miquel Moretó. "Sargantana: A 1 GHz+ in-order RISC-V processor with SIMD vector extensions in 22nm FD-SOI". 25th Euromicro, 2022.