Surelog

SystemVerilog 2017 Pre-processor, Parser, Elaborator, UHDM Compiler. Provides IEEE Design/TB C/C++ VPI and Python AST API.

Goal

This project aims at providing a complete SystemVerilog 2017 front-end: a preprocessor, a parser, an elaborator for both design and testbench. We are aiming at supporting all open-source cores.

• Current status:
  • Surelog's elaboration trees for BlackParrot, Ariane cores are equivalent with Verilator's elaboration tree.
  • Ibex and Earlgrey completely Synthesizes and runs in Hardware with the Surelog/UHDM/Yosys flow.

Applications

Linter, Simulator, Synthesis tool, Formal tools can use this front-end. They either can be developed as plugins (linked with) or use this front-end as an intermediate step of their compilation flows using the on-disk serialized models (UHDM).

Presentation

• WOSET 2020 UHDM (& Surelog) Paper and Presentation

Contributing to this project

This project is open to contributions from any users! From the commercial vendor to the Verilog enthusiast, all are welcome. We started maintaining a list of ideas for contribution under Help Wanted

Features

• The preprocessor and the parser use Antlr 4.10 as a parser generator, we track Antlr/main.
• The preprocessor and the parser ASTs are made persistent on disk using Cap'n'Proto, enabling incremental compilation.
• The tool is built thread safe and performs multithread parsing.
• Large files/modules/packages are splitted for multi-threading compilation.
• Surelog accepts IEEE Simulator-compliant project specification.
• Surelog issues Errors/Warning/Info/Notes about language compliance.
• Surelog allows for pre-compiled packages (UVM,...).
• A comprehensive Python API allows to:
  • listen or visit the Parser grammar and create custom linting rules
  • Visit the design data model and create custom linting rules
  • Customize the message formats
  • Waive messages
• Surelog creates a UHDM compiled database of the design that can be read by 3rd party tools (Synthesis, Simulator, Linter, Formal...) using the Standard VPI API.

Build instructions and test:

• Read INSTALL

If you had a previous install, remove it first:
  make uninstall  (PREFIX=...)

  make
or
  make debug
or
  make release_no_tcmalloc (For no tcmalloc)
or
  make release_with_python
  
make install (/usr/local/bin and /usr/local/lib by default,
              use PREFIX= for alternative location)

For more build/test options and system requirements for building see src/README file.

Use Surelog as an external package with CMake

For your project to use Surelog as an external module, you need to tell CMake where to find Surelog. Note that CMake expects the module directory organized a certain way and Surelog's installation step does that so make sure to run that. You can provide the path to CMake in few different ways -

1. By updating CMAKE_MODULE_PATH variable in your project's CMakeLists.txt file by adding the following lines -

set(CMAKE_MODULE_PATH ${CMAKE_MODULE_PATH} <absolute or relative path to surelog installation folder>)
find_package(Surelog)

2. By providing the location of the surelog installation with the find_package command itself, as in the following -

find_package(Surelog PATHS <absolute or relative path to surelog installation folder>)

3. By providing the location of the surelog installation as a command line parameter when invoking CMake -

cmake -DSurelog_DIR=<absolute or relative path to surelog installation folder> -S . -B out

For additional help, refer to cmake documentation on external modules.

Once CMake successfully finds Surelog, all you would need is to add the following line after the call to add_library/add_executable in your CMakeLists.txt file.

target_link_libraries(<your project name> surelog)

Usage

Surelog commands

• The executable is located here:

  • build/bin/surelog (Release build)
  • dbuild/bin/surelog (Debug build)
  • /usr/local/bin/surelog (After install)

• STANDARD VERILOG COMMAND LINE:

 -f <file>             Accepts a file containing command line arguments
 -v <file>             Library file
 -sv <file>            Forces this file to be parsed as a SystemVerilog file
 -sverilog             Forces all files to be parsed as SystemVerilog files
 -y <path>             Library directory
 +incdir+<dir>[+<dir>...]  Specifies include paths
 -Idir                 Specifies include paths
 +libext+<extname>+... Specifies the library extensions
 <file>.v              Verilog File
 <file>.sv             SystemVerilog File
 +liborder             Lib Order option (ignored)
 +librescan            Lib Rescan option (ignored)
 +libverbose           Lib Verbose option (ignored)
 +nolibcell            No Lib Cell option (ignored)
 +define+name=value[+name=value...] Defines a macro and optionally its value
 -L <libName>          Defines library compilation order
 -map <mapFile>        Specifies a library mapping file (multiple -map options supported)
 -cfgfile <confiFile>  Specifies a configuration file (multiple -cfgFile options supported)
 -cfg <configName>     Specifies a configuration to use (multiple -cfg options supported)
 -Dvar=value           Same as env var definition for -f files var substitution
 -Pparameter=value     Overrides a toplevel module parameter

• EDA TOOLS COMPATIBILITY OPTIONS:

 -cmd_ign <cmd> <argc> Ignore <cmd> when encountered and drop <argc> arguments
 -cmd_ren <flag1> <flag2> rename <flag1> into <flag2> when encountered 
 -cmd_mrg <flag1> <flag2> merge <flag1> argument into a unified <flag2> '+' argument when encountered 

• FLOWS OPTIONS:

  -fileunit             Compiles each Verilog file as an independent compilation unit (under slpp_unit/ if -writepp used)
  -diffcompunit         Compiles both all files as a whole unit and separate compilation units to perform diffs
  -parse                Parse/Compile/Elaborate/Produces UHDM.
  -top/--top-module <module> Top level module for elaboration (multiple cmds ok)
  -bb_mod <module>      Blackbox module (multiple cmds ok, ex: -bb_mod work@top)
  -bb_inst <instance>   Blackbox instance (multiple cmds ok, ex: -bb_inst work@top.u1)
  -noparse              Turns off Parsing & Compilation & Elaboration
  -nocomp               Turns off Compilation & Elaboration
  -noelab               Turns off Elaboration
  -parseonly            Only Parses, reloads Preprocessor saved db
  -elabuhdm             Forces UHDM/VPI Full Elaboration/Uniquification, default is the Folded Model.
                        A client application can elect to perform the full elaboration after reading back the UHDM db by invoking the Elaborator listener.
  -batch <batch.txt>    Runs all the tests specified in the file in batch mode. Tests are expressed as one full command line per line.
  -pythonlistener       Enables the Parser Python Listener
  -pythonlistenerfile <script.py> Specifies the AST python listener file
  -pythonevalscriptperfile <script.py>  Eval the Python script on each source file (Multithreaded)
  -pythonevalscript <script.py> Eval the Python script at the design level
  -nopython             Turns off all Python features, including waivers
  -withpython           Turns on all Python features, including waivers (Requires to build with python (SURELOG_WITH_PYTHON=1)
  -strictpythoncheck    Turns on strict Python checks
  -mt/--threads <nb_max_treads>   0 up to 512 max threads, 0 or 1 being single threaded, if "max" is given, the program will use one thread per core on the host
  -mp <nb_max_processes> 0 up to 512 max processes, 0 or 1 being single process
  -lowmem               Minimizes memory high water mark (uses multiple staggered processes for preproc, parsing and elaboration)
  -split <line number>  Split files or modules larger than specified line number for multi thread compilation
  -timescale=<timescale> Specifies the overall timescale
  -nobuiltin            Do not parse SV builtin classes (array...)

Example:
 surelog top.sv -parse -d uhdm

• SEPARATE COMPILATION FLOW OPTIONS:

 -init                  Initializes cache for separate compile flow
 -sepcomp               Separate compilation, each invocation of surelog creates a compilation unit (Optional -nohash)
                        Each -sepcomp step can run in parallel
 -link                  Links and elaborates the separately compiled files (Optional -nohash and -elabuhdm)

 Example:
   surelog -init
   surelog pkg1.sv pkg2.sv -sepcomp
   surelog top.sv -sepcomp 
   surelog -link 

• YOSYS AND VERILATOR FEATURES: To enable feature:

  --enable-feature=<feature1>,<feature2>
  
  

  To disable feature:

  --disable-feature=<feature1>,<feature2>
  

  Possible features:

  parametersubstitution	Enables/Disables substitution of assignment patterns in parameters
  letexprsubstitution          Enables/Disables Let expr substitution
  

• TRACES OPTIONS:

   -d <int>              Debug <level> 1-4, lib, ast, inst, incl, uhdm, coveruhdm, cache
   -nostdout             Mutes Standard output
   -verbose              Gives verbose processing information
   -profile              Gives Profiling information

• OUTPUT OPTIONS:

   -l <file>             Specifies log file, default is surelog.log under output dir
   -odir/--Mdir <dir>    Specifies the output directory, default is ./
   -writeppfile <file>   Writes out Preprocessor output in file (all compilation units will override this file)
   -writepp              Writes out Preprocessor output (all compilation units will generate files under slpp_all/ or slpp_unit/)
   -lineoffsetascomments Writes the preprocessor line offsets as comments as opposed as parser directives
   -nocache              Default allows to create a cache for include files, this option prevents it
   -cache <dir>          Specifies the cache directory, default is slpp_all/cache or slpp_unit/cache
   -nohash               Don't use hash mechanism for cache file path, always treat cache as valid (no timestamp/dependancy check)
   -createcache          Create cache for precompiled packages
   -filterdirectives     Filters out simple directives like default_nettype in pre-processor's output
   -filterprotected      Filters out protected regions in pre-processor's output
   -filtercomments       Filters out comments in pre-processor's output
   -outputlineinfo       Outputs SLline directives in pre-processor's output
   -pploc                Output message location in terms of post preprocessor location
   -noinfo               Filters out INFO messages
   -nonote               Filters out NOTE messages
   -nowarning            Filters out WARNING messages
   -synth                Reports non-synthesizable constructs
                         Honnors //pragma translate_off  ,  //pragma translate_on
   -formal               Reports non-synthesizable constructs line -synth
                         but still allows model checking constructs
   -o <path>             Turns on all compilation stages, produces all outputs under that path
   -cd <dir>             Internally change directory to <dir>
   -exe <command>        Post execute a system call <command>, passes it the preprocessor file list.
   --help                This help
   --version             Surelog version and build date

• RETURN CODE

   Bit mask the return code, more than 1 bit can be on.
     0   - No issues
     0x1 - Fatal error(s)
     0x2 - Syntax error(s)
     0x4 - Error(s)

C++ API

• Surelog comes in the form of a library libsurelog.a and can be linked to an executalble.
• Extensive API is provided to browse:
  • the preprocessor file contents in AST form,
  • the post-parsing file contents in AST form,
  • the non-elaborated and elaborated design/testbench data model.
  • the UHDM or IEEE VPI Object Model.
• Creating your own executable using libsurelog.a is discussed in src/README file.
• Three examples executable source file src/hellosureworld.cpp, src/hellouhdm.cpp, src/hellodesign.cpp illustrate how to navigate the Surelog internal data structure or the UHDM "VPI Standard Object Model" of the design using the libsurelog.a library.

Python API

• The most powerful Python API is the UHDM Python wrapper. It can be used independently of Surelog python's API and build options. See UHDM Python API

• By default Surelog does not build the Python API, See src/README

• The Python API is operating on the Preprocessor and Parser ASTs. It is not supporting elaboration. Post-elaborated API seekers need to the use UHDM C/C++ API.

• The file slformatmsg.py illustrates how messages can be reformated.

  • Place a modified version of this file either in the execution directory, or install directory /usr/local/lib/surelog-python

• A simple example of creating a new error message and generating errors can be found here: python_listener.py

• A simple example for design-level data model exploration can be found here: myscriptPerDesign.py

• The complete Python API is described in the following files: SLAPI.h vobjecttypes

• Waivers can be installed in slwaivers.py files in the execution directory or install directory /usr/local/lib/surelog-python

Large design compilation on Linux

• It is recommanded to use the -lowmem -mp options in conjunction for large designs.
• The preprocessing will occur using one process, but the parsing will occur using multiple processes.
• The elaboration and UHDM creation will use a single process.
• Surelog spawns sub-Surelog processes to achieve the overall compilation.
• Or course don't use the -nocache option to benefit from incremental compilation and reuse cached parsed files

Batch mode operations

• A utility script tests/create_batch_script.tcl generates batch command files for large unit test regressions. See the script's internal help.

Projects using Surelog:

• Yosys SystemVerilog plugin Yosys plugin using Surelog/UHDM to add read_systemverilog command to Yosys
• Surelog/UHDM/Yosys/Verilator Full SystemVerilog Synthesis / Simulation flow
• https://github.com/siliconcompiler/siliconcompiler A modular build system for hardware

Sister project:

• UHDM - Full SystemVerilog (VHDL later) VPI API for interfacing with 3rd party tools

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