Resources and Specifications

This page aims to collect all the resources and specifications we need in one place for quick access. We will try our best to keep links here up-to-date. Feel free to add more links here.

Getting Started

This section is primarily a series of useful links found online

• FSiC2019
• Fundamentals to learn to get started tutorial

Is Open Source Hardware Profitable?

RaptorCS on FOSS Hardware Interview

OpenPOWER ISA

• 3.0 PDF
• 2.07 PDF

Overview of the user ISA:

Raymond Chen's PowerPC series

OpenPOWER OpenFSI Spec (2016)

• OpenPOWER OpenFSI Spec

• OpenPOWER OpenFSI Compliance Spec

Communities

• https://www.reddit.com/r/OpenPOWER/
• http://lists.mailinglist.openpowerfoundation.org/pipermail/openpower-hdl-cores/
• http://lists.mailinglist.openpowerfoundation.org/pipermail/openpower-community-dev/

Other GPU Specifications

• https://developer.amd.com/wp-content/resources/RDNA_Shader_ISA.pdf
• https://developer.amd.com/wp-content/resources/Vega_Shader_ISA_28July2017.pdf
• MALI Midgard
• Nyuzi
• VideoCore IV
• etnaviv

JTAG

• Useful JTAG implementation reference: Design Of IEEE 1149.1 TAP Controller IP Core by Shelja, Nandakumar and Muruganantham, DOI:10.5121/csit.2016.60910

  Abstract

  "The objective of this work is to design and implement a TAP controller IP core compatible with IEEE 1149.1-2013 revision of the standard. The test logic architecture also includes the Test Mode Persistence controller and its associated logic. This work is expected to serve as a ready to use module that can be directly inserted in to a new digital IC designs with little modifications."

Radix MMU

• Qemu emulation

D-Cache

D-Cache Possible Optimizations papers and links

• ACDC: Small, Predictable and High-Performance Data Cache

BW Enhancing Shared L1 Cache Design research done in cooperation with AMD

• Youtube video PACT 2020 - Analyzing and Leveraging Shared L1 Caches in GPUs
• Url to PDF of paper on author's website (clicking will download the pdf)

RTL Arithmetic SQRT, FPU etc.

Wallace vs Dadda Multipliers

• Paper comparing efficiency of Wallace and Dadda Multipliers in RTL implementations (clicking will download the pdf from archive.org)

Sqrt

• Fast Floating Point Square Root
• Reciprocal Square Root Algorithm
• Fast Calculation of Cube and Inverse Cube Roots Using a Magic Constant and Its Implementation on Microcontrollers (clicking will download the pdf)
• Modified Fast Inverse Square Root and Square Root Approximation Algorithms: The Method of Switching Magic Constants (clicking will download the pdf)

CORDIC and related algorithms

• https://bugs.libre-soc.org/show_bug.cgi?id=127 research into CORDIC
• https://bugs.libre-soc.org/show_bug.cgi?id=208
• BKM (log(x) and e^x)
• CORDIC
• Does not have an easy way of computing tan(x)
• zipcpu CORDIC
• Low latency and Low error floating point TCORDIC (email Michael or Cole if you don't have IEEE access)
• http://www.myhdl.org/docs/examples/sinecomp/ MyHDL version of CORDIC
• https://dspguru.com/dsp/faqs/cordic/

IEEE Standard for Floating-Point Arithmetic (IEEE 754)

Almost all modern computers follow the IEEE Floating-Point Standard. Of course, we will follow it as well for interoperability.

• IEEE 754-2019: https://standards.ieee.org/standard/754-2019.html

Note: Even though this is such an important standard used by everyone, it is unfortunately not freely available and requires a payment to access. However, each of the Libre-SOC members already have access to the document.

• Lecture notes - Floating Point Appreciation

Among other things, has a nice explanation on arithmetic, rounding modes and the sticky bit.

• What Every Computer Scientist Should Know About Floating-Point Arithmetic

Nice resource on rounding errors (ulps and epsilon) and the "table maker's dilemma".

Past FPU Mistakes to learn from

• Intel Underestimates Error Bounds by 1.3 quintillion on Random ASCII – tech blog of Bruce Dawson
• Intel overstates FPU accuracy 06/01/2013
• How not to design an ISA https://player.vimeo.com/video/450406346 Meester Forsyth http://eelpi.gotdns.org/

Khronos Standards

The Khronos Group creates open standards for authoring and acceleration of graphics, media, and computation. It is a requirement for our hybrid CPU/GPU to be compliant with these standards as well as with IEEE754, in order to be commercially-competitive in both areas: especially Vulkan and OpenCL being the most important. SPIR-V is also important for the Kazan driver.

Thus the zfpacc proposal has been created which permits runtime dynamic switching between different accuracy levels, in userspace applications.

SPIR-V Main Page Link

• SPIR-V 1.5 Specification Revision 1
• SPIR-V OpenCL Extended Instruction Set
• SPIR-V GLSL Extended Instruction Set

Vulkan Main Page Link

• Vulkan 1.1.122

OpenCL Main Page

• OpenCL 2.2 API Specification
• OpenCL 2.2 Extension Specification

• OpenCL 2.2 SPIR-V Environment Specification

• OpenCL released the proposed OpenCL 3.0 spec for comments in april 2020

• Announcement video

• Announcement video slides (PDF)

Note: We are implementing hardware accelerated Vulkan and OpenCL while relying on other software projects to translate APIs to Vulkan. E.g. Zink allows for OpenGL-to-Vulkan in software.

Open Source (CC BY + MIT) DirectX specs (by Microsoft, but not official specs)

https://github.com/Microsoft/DirectX-Specs

Graphics and Compute API Stack

I found this informative post that mentions Kazan and a whole bunch of other stuff. It looks like many APIs can be emulated on top of Vulkan, although performance is not evaluated.

https://synappsis.wordpress.com/2017/06/03/opengl-over-vulkan-dev/

• Pixilica is heading up an initiative to create a RISC-V graphical ISA

• Pixilica 3D Graphical ISA Slides

3D Graphics Texture compression software and hardware

• Proprietary Rad Game Tools Oddle Texture Software Compression

• Blog post by one of the engineers who developed the proprietary Rad Game Tools Oddle Texture Software Compression and the Oodle Kraken decompression software and hardware decoder used in the ps5 ssd

Various POWER Communities

• An effort to make a 100% Libre POWER Laptop The T2080 is a POWER8 chip.
• Power Progress Community Supporting/Raising awareness of various POWER related open projects on the FOSS community
• OpenPOWER Promotes and ensure compliance with the Power ISA amongst members.
• OpenCapi High performance interconnect for POWER machines. One of the big advantages of the POWER architecture. Notably more performant than PCIE Gen4, and is designed to be layered on top of the physical PCIE link.
• OpenPOWER “Virtual Coffee” Calls Truly open bi-weekly teleconference lines for anybody interested in helping advance or adopting the POWER architecture.

Conferences

see conferences

Coriolis2

• LIP6's Coriolis - a set of backend design tools: https://www-soc.lip6.fr/equipe-cian/logiciels/coriolis/

Note: The rest of LIP6's website is in French, but there is a UK flag in the corner that gives the English version.

Klayout

• KLayout - Layout viewer and editor: https://www.klayout.de/

image to GDS-II

• https://nazca-design.org/convert-image-to-gds/

The OpenROAD Project

OpenROAD seeks to develop and foster an autonomous, 24-hour, open-source layout generation flow (RTL-to-GDS).

• https://theopenroadproject.org/

Other RISC-V GPU attempts

• https://fossi-foundation.org/2019/09/03/gsoc-64b-pointers-in-rv32

• http://bjump.org/manycore/

• https://resharma.github.io/RISCV32-GPU/

TODO: Get in touch and discuss collaboration

Tests, Benchmarks, Conformance, Compliance, Verification, etc.

RISC-V Tests

RISC-V Foundation is in the process of creating an official conformance test. It's still in development as far as I can tell.

• //TODO LINK TO RISC-V CONFORMANCE TEST

IEEE 754 Testing/Emulation

IEEE 754 has no official tests for floating-point but there are well-known third party tools to check such as John Hauser's TestFloat.

There is also his SoftFloat library, which is a software emulation library for IEEE 754.

• http://www.jhauser.us/arithmetic/

Jacob is also working on an IEEE 754 software emulation library written in Rust which also has Python bindings:

• Source: https://salsa.debian.org/Kazan-team/simple-soft-float
• Crate: https://crates.io/crates/simple-soft-float
• Autogenerated Docs: https://docs.rs/simple-soft-float/

A cool paper I came across in my research is "IeeeCC754++ : An Advanced Set of Tools to Check IEEE 754-2008 Conformity" by Dr. Matthias Hüsken.

• Direct link to PDF: http://elpub.bib.uni-wuppertal.de/servlets/DerivateServlet/Derivate-7505/dc1735.pdf

Khronos Tests

OpenCL Conformance Tests

• https://github.com/KhronosGroup/OpenCL-CTS

Vulkan Conformance Tests

• https://github.com/KhronosGroup/VK-GL-CTS

MAJOR NOTE: We are not allowed to say we are compliant with any of the Khronos standards until we actually make an official submission, do the paperwork, and pay the relevant fees.

Formal Verification

Formal verification of Libre RISC-V ensures that it is bug-free in regards to what we specify. Of course, it is important to do the formal verification as a final step in the development process before we produce thousands or millions of silicon.

• Possible way to speed up our solvers for our formal proofs https://web.archive.org/web/20201029205507/https://github.com/eth-sri/fastsmt

• Algorithms (papers) submitted for 2018 International SAT Competition https://web.archive.org/web/20201029205239/https://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/handle/10138/237063/sc2018_proceedings.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20201029205637/http://www.satcompetition.org/

• Minisail https://www.isa-afp.org/entries/MiniSail.html - compiler for SAIL into c

Some learning resources I found in the community:

• ZipCPU: http://zipcpu.com/ ZipCPU provides a comprehensive tutorial for beginners and many exercises/quizzes/slides: http://zipcpu.com/tutorial/
• Western Digital's SweRV CPU blog (I recommend looking at all their posts): https://tomverbeure.github.io/
• https://tomverbeure.github.io/risc-v/2018/11/19/A-Bug-Free-RISC-V-Core-without-Simulation.html
• https://tomverbeure.github.io/rtl/2019/01/04/Under-the-Hood-of-Formal-Verification.html

Automation

• https://www.ohwr.org/project/wishbone-gen

LLVM

Adding new instructions:

• https://archive.fosdem.org/2015/schedule/event/llvm_internal_asm/

Branch Prediction

• https://danluu.com/branch-prediction/

Python RTL Tools

• Migen - a Python RTL
• LiTeX An SOC builder written in Python Migen DSL. Allows you to generate functional RTL for a SOC configured with cache, a RISCV core, ethernet, DRAM support, and parameterizeable CSRs.
• Migen Tutorial
• There is a great guy, Robert Baruch, who has a good tutorial on nMigen. He also build an FPGA-proven Motorola 6800 CPU clone with nMigen and put the code and instructional videos online.
• Minerva An SOC written in Python nMigen DSL
• Minerva example using nmigen-soc https://github.com/jfng/minerva-examples/blob/master/hello/core.py
• Using our Python Unit Tests(old)
• https://chisel.eecs.berkeley.edu/api/latest/chisel3/util/DecoupledIO.html
• http://www.clifford.at/papers/2016/yosys-synth-formal/slides.pdf

Other

• https://debugger.medium.com/why-is-apples-m1-chip-so-fast-3262b158cba2 N1
• https://codeberg.org/tok/librecell Libre Cell Library
• https://wiki.f-si.org/index.php/FSiC2019
• https://fusesoc.net
• https://www.lowrisc.org/open-silicon/
• http://fpgacpu.ca/fpga/Pipeline_Skid_Buffer.html pipeline skid buffer
• https://pyvcd.readthedocs.io/en/latest/vcd.gtkw.html GTKwave
• http://www.sunburst-design.com/papers/CummingsSNUG2002SJ_Resets.pdf Synchronous Resets? Asynchronous Resets? I am so confused! How will I ever know which to use? by Clifford E. Cummings
• http://www.sunburst-design.com/papers/CummingsSNUG2008Boston_CDC.pdf Clock Domain Crossing (CDC) Design & Verification Techniques Using SystemVerilog, by Clifford E. Cummings In particular, see section 5.8.2: Multi-bit CDC signal passing using 1-deep / 2-register FIFO synchronizer.
• http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2016/EECS-2016-143.pdf Understanding Latency Hiding on GPUs, by Vasily Volkov
• Efabless "Openlane" https://github.com/efabless/openlane
• example of openlane with nmigen https://github.com/lethalbit/nmigen/tree/openlane
• Co-simulation plugin for verilator, transferring to ECP5 https://github.com/vmware/cascade
• Multi-read/write ported memories https://tomverbeure.github.io/2019/08/03/Multiport-Memories.html
• Data-dependent fail-on-first aka "Fault-tolerant speculative vectorisation" https://arxiv.org/pdf/1803.06185.pdf
• OpenPOWER Foundation Membership https://openpowerfoundation.org/membership/how-to-join/membership-kit-9-27-16-4/
• Clock switching (and formal verification) https://zipcpu.com/formal/2018/05/31/clkswitch.html
• Circuit of Compunit http://home.macintosh.garden/~mepy2/libre-soc/comp_unit_req_rel.html
• Circuitverse 16-bit https://circuitverse.org/users/17603/projects/54486
• Nice example model of a Tomasulo-based architecture, with multi-issue, in-order issue, out-of-order execution, in-order commit, with reservation stations and reorder buffers, and hazard avoidance. https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Engineering/Courses/En164/Tomasulo_10.pdf

Real/Physical Projects

• Samuel's KC5 code
• https://chips4makers.io/blog/
• https://hackaday.io/project/7817-zynqberry
• https://github.com/efabless/raven-picorv32
• https://efabless.com
• https://efabless.com/design_catalog/default
• https://wiki.f-si.org/index.php/The_Raven_chip:_First-time_silicon_success_with_qflow_and_efabless
• https://mshahrad.github.io/openpiton-asplos16.html

ASIC tape-out pricing

• https://europractice-ic.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/General-MPW-EUROPRACTICE-200505-v8.pdf

Funding

• https://toyota-ai.ventures/
• NLNet Applications

Good Programming/Design Practices

• Liskov Substitution Principle
• Principle of Least Astonishment
• https://peertube.f-si.org/videos/watch/379ef007-40b7-4a51-ba1a-0db4f48e8b16

• Rust-Lang Philosophy and Consensus

• https://youtu.be/o5Ihqg72T3c

• http://flopoco.gforge.inria.fr/
• Fundamentals of Modern VLSI Devices https://groups.google.com/a/groups.riscv.org/d/msg/hw-dev/b4pPvlzBzu0/7hDfxArEAgAJ

12 skills summary

• https://www.crnhq.org/cr-kit/

Analog Simulation

• https://github.com/Isotel/mixedsim
• http://www.vlsiacademy.org/open-source-cad-tools.html
• http://ngspice.sourceforge.net/adms.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verilog-AMS#Open_Source_Implementations

Libre-SOC Standards

This list auto-generated from a page tag "standards":

Server setup

• web-server
• git-mirroring
• nagios-monitoring

Testbeds

• https://www.fed4fire.eu/testbeds/

Really Useful Stuff

• https://github.com/im-tomu/fomu-workshop/blob/master/docs/requirements.txt
• https://github.com/im-tomu/fomu-workshop/blob/master/docs/conf.py#L39-L47

Digilent Arty

• https://store.digilentinc.com/pmod-sf3-32-mb-serial-nor-flash/
• https://store.digilentinc.com/arty-a7-artix-7-fpga-development-board-for-makers-and-hobbyists/
• https://store.digilentinc.com/pmod-vga-video-graphics-array/
• https://store.digilentinc.com/pmod-microsd-microsd-card-slot/
• https://store.digilentinc.com/pmod-rtcc-real-time-clock-calendar/
• https://store.digilentinc.com/pmod-i2s2-stereo-audio-input-and-output/

CircuitJS experiments

• high-speed-serdes-in-circuitjs

Logic Simulator 2

• https://github.com/dkilfoyle/logic2
  Live web version

Features

1. Micro-subset verilog-like DSL for coding the array of logic gates (parsed using Antlr)
2. Monaco-based code editor with automatic linting/error reporting, smart indentation, code folding, hints
3. IDE docking ui courtesy of JupyterLab's Lumino widgets
4. Schematic visualisation courtesy of d3-hwschematic
5. Testbench simulation with graphical trace output and schematic animation
6. Circuit description as gates, boolean logic or verilog behavioural model
7. Generate arbitrary outputs from truth table and Sum of Products or Karnaugh Map

[from the GitHub page. As of 2021/03/29]

ASIC Timing and Design flow resources

• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/asic-design-flow-introduction-timing-constraints-mahmoud-abdellatif/
• https://www.icdesigntips.com/2020/10/setup-and-hold-time-explained.html
• https://www.vlsiguide.com/2018/07/clock-tree-synthesis-cts.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_divider

Geometric Haskell Library

• https://github.com/julialongtin/hslice/blob/master/Graphics/Slicer/Math/GeometricAlgebra.hs
• https://github.com/julialongtin/hslice/blob/master/Graphics/Slicer/Math/PGA.hs
• https://arxiv.org/pdf/1501.06511.pdf
• https://bivector.net/index.html

TODO investigate

     https://github.com/idea-fasoc/OpenFASOC
     https://www.quicklogic.com/2020/06/18/the-tipping-point/
     https://www.quicklogic.com/blog/
     https://www.quicklogic.com/2020/09/15/why-open-source-ecosystems-make-good-business-sense/
     https://www.quicklogic.com/qorc/
     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAD750
     The RAD750 system has a price that is comparable to the RAD6000, the latter of which as of 2002 was listed at US$200,000 (equivalent to $284,292 in 2019).
     https://theamphour.com/525-open-fpga-toolchains-and-machine-learning-with-brian-faith-of-quicklogic/
     https://github.blog/2021-03-22-open-innovation-winning-strategy-digital-sovereignty-human-progress/
     https://github.com/olofk/edalize
     https://github.com/hdl/containers
     https://twitter.com/OlofKindgren/status/1374848733746192394
     You might also want to check out https://umarcor.github.io/osvb/index.html
     https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/1932021-python-now-replaces-tcl-all-besteda-apis-avidan-efody/
     “TCL has served us well, over the years, allowing us to provide an API, and at the same time ensure nobody will ever use it. I will miss it”.
     https://sphinxcontrib-hdl-diagrams.readthedocs.io/en/latest/examples/comb-full-adder.html
     https://sphinxcontrib-hdl-diagrams.readthedocs.io/en/latest/examples/carry4.html
     FuseSoC is used by MicroWatt and Western Digital cores
     OpenTitan also uses FuseSoC
     LowRISC is UK based
     https://antmicro.com/blog/2020/12/ibex-support-in-verilator-yosys-via-uhdm-surelog/