Awesome

Alternative Hardware Description Languages

This repository includes the examples used in the EELive 2014 Hardware Design and the Grunge Era presentation. In each example directory, is a sub-directory for each alt.hdl: bsv (bluespec), chisel, myhdl, and a test_verilogs directories. The source for each language is in the respective directories. The test_verilogs is a test environment to verify each of the generated Verilogs, this way each implementation can be verified via a single test environment.

This repository contains two groups of examples: complete are the examples used in the presentation and are fully finished and working examples. The second set of examples are slightly larger examples not included in the presentation and (as last writing) are incomplete (since they were not used, less motivation to complete them :)

Complete Examples (used in the presentation)
   ex1_wprcnt   : a silly counter
   ex2_mathadds : add and scale
   ex3_zpexgcd  : greatest common denominator
   ex4_mathsop  : sum-of-products (a.k.a FIR filter), non-optimized
   
Incomplete Examples (not used in the presentation)
   ex5_medfilt : median filter, often used in image processing
   ex6_vgasys  : VGA driver
   ex7_mathsys : a more complicated math system
   ex8_uart    : UART bus driver

These examples are intended to be small digestible examples that are used to introduce the different alt.hdls. The examples are:

Not a tutorial. These examples are not intended to be a tutorial. Each subsequent example might be slightly more complex but not in the fashion that would make them useful for a tutorial.
Not a base for comparison. Although some minor comparisons were made in the presentation the goal of the presentation was simply to introduce the three alt.hdls. These examples are not exhaustive to be considered as a source for language comparison. For instance, the examples do not include a traditional state-machine design.

Synthesis Results

Some of the examples provide synthesis results for each of alt.hdl examples. No timing constaints were used - let the tool determine Fmax. Two FPGAs were targetted: Altera Cyclone II EP2C35 and a Xilinx Spartan6 XC6SLX25. The results are not useful for comparing devices! The results include resource utilization and maximum clock frequency.

Complete Examples

The following four are complete examples used in the presentation.

A Useless Counter (ex1_wprcnt)

This example was mentioned briefly in the presentation. It is a counter that counts up to 31 and then toggles between 31 and 30.

Example source bsv, chisel, and myhdl.

Add and Scale (ex2_mathadds)

This is a simple system that takes two inputs adds them and then multiplies by a constant (constant is parameterizable).

v[n] = (x[n] + y[n]) * M

This is a non-registered version. A register version is used in the ex7_mathsys example. Also note, this example does not handle overflow (the tests show the overflow).

Example source bsv, chisel, and myhdl.

Greatest Common Denominator (ex3_zpexgcd)

Computes the greatest common denominator. Two of the three alt.hdls provided this as an example - I was compelled to include it in the presentation.

Example source bsv, chisel, and myhdl.

Synthesis Results

ZPEXGCD Synthesis

Comment on the synthesis results, the implementations are not identical, the myhdl version has an extra register stage on the ouptut, in such a small example this makes a difference. The myhdl version can be modified (e.g. remove the registered outputs) and the resource usage will be indetical for all three.

Math SOP (ex4_mathsop)

This is a basic sum-of-products (SOP) example and is implemented as a finite impulse response (FIR) filter. The operation is a simple SOP but when you combine the usage of the sliding window of the input signal with a set of coefficients it becomes a FIR filter.

This is an overused data-path example - why in the world did I include it? Couple reasons: it is useful to highlight some of the language features and it is enjoyable to look at the output waveforms (not the binary signals but the filtered digital signals).

This example does not architecturally optimize the SOP for a given design. Example, often the clock rate is higher than the sample rate and a single multiplier can be shared (time-multiplexed) in the SOP calculation. The description in this example would rarely (if ever) be used for an actual FIR filter in an FPGA or ASIC but is useful as as a starting point and digestable example.

Example source bsv, chisel, and myhdl.

Synthesis Results

MATHSOP Synthesis

Incomplete Examples

The following are larger examples that I wanted to make available. It shows features of the languages that are difficult to show with the small examples (but difficult to present). Since these examples were not targeted for the presentation they are a WIP, I am completing them in my leisure (which means they will probably never be completed). Feel free to create a pull-request with updated/completed versions.

Median Filter (ex5_medfilt)

Another filter example (give me a break) but this one is slightly different. The median calculation involves a sort. Given a list/array/vector of values sort and find the middle. In image processing a median filter is often used to remove noise from and image (various examples via google).

(following links not active - yet) Median example source bsv, chisel, and myhdl. Median filter example source bsv, chisel, and myhdl.

Here is a write-up describing the median calculation implementation.

VGA system (ex6_vgasys)

This example is a straightforward VGA system, although VGA is not as useful these days - it is readily available on many development boards and it is a self contained medium size example and explores some different aspects of a complex digital system. The vgasys has two main components:

video color bar generator
video sync (drives the VGA signals with the correct timing relationships)

Although this system only has the two components it is intended to support a generic video system (outlined here) with video memory and video generator as described in the example description.

(following links not active - yet) Example source bsv, chisel, and myhdl.

Math System (ex7_mathsys)

This system is some what nonsensical but it lets us build off the previous and explore different aspects of the languages.
The system will be defined as:

z[n] = (v[n] * F{y[n] + x[n]}) + H{v[n]} + v[n-D]

where H is the mathsop (FIR filter) and F is another system described in the example description.

(following links not active - yet) Example source bsv, chisel, and myhdl.

Contributing

It is difficult (impossible?) to be an expert in every language. Majority of my past experience is with Verilog and VHDL but I have been using MyHDL for a considerable amount of time and consequently use V* less and less (I am reminded often how much VHDL I have forgotten, lack of use).

If you have suggestions for improvements or version for the incomplete code leave a comment or generate a pull-request. If you provide an example for one of the incomplete examples make sure the test completes successfully. To run the tests:

Convert the example to Verilog
Run the test_verilogs test:

python test_<example>

Each completed example has a test and has verified the generated Verilog. Each incomplete example has Verilog stubs and tests. The incomplete examples tests can be run and indicate the non-implemented tests fail.

Note, for the first four examples I probably will not make many changes since these were the versions used in the presentation. Also, because of different constraints I realize some language features were not used in the first four examples.