A tiny Open POWER ISA softcore written in VHDL 2008
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Anton Blanchard db937403ec Initial support for ghdl synthesis
A first pass at ghdl synthesis using yosys and nextpnr. It runs hello world
or micropython if the FPGA has enough block RAM (eg ECP5 85F). The hello
world testcase also loops UART rx to tx in software (ie not a hardware
loopback).

It uses Docker images, so no software needs to be installed. If you prefer
podman you can use that too. Edit Makefile.synth to configure your FPGA,
JTAG device etc.

To build:

make -f Makefile.synth

and to program:

make -f Makefile.synth prog

A few issues:

We need to add PLL support. Right now Microwatt runs at whatever the
external clock frequency is and the baud rate gets scaled by how far off
50MHz it is. This means on the ecp5-evn with a 12 MHz clock rate the baud
rate is a quite strange 27650 (115200 * 50 / 12). On my OrangeCrab with a
50MHz clock the UART is 115200.

It uses a large amount of resources, way more than it should. There are
still some ghdl/yosys issues to be sorted out.

Signed-off-by: Anton Blanchard <anton@linux.ibm.com>
5 years ago
constraints Initial support for ghdl synthesis 5 years ago
fpga
hello_world
media
micropython
openocd Initial support for ghdl synthesis 5 years ago
scripts
sim-unisim
tests
.gitignore
.travis.yml
LICENSE
Makefile
Makefile.synth Initial support for ghdl synthesis 5 years ago
README.md
cache_ram.vhdl
common.vhdl
control.vhdl
core.vhdl
core_debug.vhdl
core_tb.vhdl
countzero.vhdl
countzero_tb.vhdl
cr_file.vhdl
cr_hazard.vhdl
crhelpers.vhdl
dcache.vhdl
dcache_tb.vhdl
decode1.vhdl
decode2.vhdl
decode_types.vhdl
divider.vhdl
divider_tb.vhdl
dmi_dtm_dummy.vhdl
dmi_dtm_tb.vhdl
dmi_dtm_xilinx.vhdl
execute1.vhdl
fetch1.vhdl
fetch2.vhdl
glibc_random.vhdl
glibc_random_helpers.vhdl
gpr_hazard.vhdl
helpers.vhdl
icache.vhdl
icache_tb.vhdl
icache_test.bin
insn_helpers.vhdl
loadstore1.vhdl
logical.vhdl
microwatt.core
multiply.vhdl
multiply_tb.vhdl
plru.vhdl
plru_tb.vhdl
ppc_fx_insns.vhdl
register_file.vhdl
rotator.vhdl
rotator_tb.vhdl
sim_bram.vhdl
sim_bram_helpers.vhdl
sim_bram_helpers_c.c
sim_console.vhdl
sim_console_c.c
sim_jtag.vhdl
sim_jtag_socket.vhdl
sim_jtag_socket_c.c
sim_uart.vhdl
soc.vhdl
utils.vhdl
wishbone_arbiter.vhdl
wishbone_bram_tb.bin
wishbone_bram_tb.vhdl
wishbone_bram_wrapper.vhdl
wishbone_debug_master.vhdl
wishbone_types.vhdl
writeback.vhdl

README.md

Microwatt

Microwatt

A tiny Open POWER ISA softcore written in VHDL 2008. It aims to be simple and easy to understand.

Simulation using ghdl

MicroPython running on Microwatt

You can try out Microwatt/Micropython without hardware by using the ghdl simulator. If you want to build directly for a hardware target board, see below.

  • Build micropython. If you aren't building on a ppc64le box you will need a cross compiler. If it isn't available on your distro grab the powerpc64le-power8 toolchain from https://toolchains.bootlin.com
git clone https://github.com/micropython/micropython.git
cd micropython
cd ports/powerpc
make -j$(nproc)
cd ../../../
  • Microwatt uses ghdl for simulation. Either install this from your distro or build it. Next build microwatt:
git clone https://github.com/antonblanchard/microwatt
cd microwatt
make
  • Link in the micropython image:
ln -s ../micropython/ports/powerpc/build/firmware.bin main_ram.bin
  • Now run microwatt, sending debug output to /dev/null:
./core_tb > /dev/null

Synthesis on Xilinx FPGAs using Vivado

  • Install Vivado (I'm using the free 2019.1 webpack edition).

  • Setup Vivado paths:

source /opt/Xilinx/Vivado/2019.1/settings64.sh
  • Install FuseSoC:
pip3 install --user -U fusesoc

Fedora users can get FuseSoC package via

sudo dnf copr enable sharkcz/danny
sudo dnf install fusesoc
  • Create a working directory and point FuseSoC at microwatt:
mkdir microwatt-fusesoc
cd microwatt-fusesoc
fusesoc library add microwatt /path/to/microwatt/
  • Build using FuseSoC. For hello world (Replace nexys_video with your FPGA board such as --target=arty_a7-100):
fusesoc run --target=nexys_video microwatt --memory_size=8192 --ram_init_file=/path/to/microwatt/fpga/hello_world.hex

You should then be able to see output via the serial port of the board (/dev/ttyUSB1, 115200 for example assuming standard clock speeds). There is a know bug where initial output may not be sent - try the reset (not programming button on your board if you don't see anything.

  • To build micropython (currently requires 1MB of BRAM eg an Artix-7 A200):
fusesoc run --target=nexys_video microwatt

Testing

  • A simple test suite containing random execution test cases and a couple of micropython test cases can be run with:
make -j$(nproc) check

Issues

This is functional, but very simple. We still have quite a lot to do:

  • There are a few instructions still to be implemented
  • Need to add caches and bypassing (in progress)
  • Need to add supervisor state (in progress)