XLS: IR semantics

[TOC]

The XLS IR is a pure dataflow-oriented IR that has the static-single-assignment property, but is specialized for generating circuitry. The aim is to create effective circuit designs through a "lifted" understanding of the high-level operations and their semantics, instead of trying to reverse all relevant properties via dependence analysis, which often cannot take advantage of high level knowledge that the designer holds in their mind at design time.

This document describes the semantics of the XLS intermediate representation (IR) including data types, operations, and textual representation.

Data types

Bits

A vector of bits with a fixed width.

Type syntax:

bits[N] where N is the number of bits.

Value syntax:

A literal decimal number. Example: 42.
A binary number prefixed with 0b. Example: 0b10101
A hexadecimal number: 0x. Example: 0xdeadbeef

The representation may optionally include the bit width in which case the type is prefixed before the literal: bits[N]:$literal. Example: bits[8]:0xab.

Array

A one-dimensional array of elements of the same type with a fixed number of elements. An array can contain bits, arrays, or tuples as elements. Empty (zero-element) arrays are not supported.

Type syntax:

$type[N]: an array containing N elements of type $type. Examples:

Two-element array of 8-bit bits type: bits[8][2]
Three-element array of tuple type: (bits[32], bits[2])[3]

Value syntax:

[$value_1, ... , $value_N] where $value_n is the value of the n-th element. Examples:

Array of bits elements with explicit bit count: [bits[8]:10, bits[8]:30]
Three-element array consisting of two-element arrays of bits elements: [[1, 2], [3, 4], [5, 6]]]

Tuple

An ordered set of fixed size containing elements with potentially different types. tuples can contain bits, arrays, or tuples as elements. May be empty.

Type syntax:

($type_{0}, ..., $type_{N-1}) where N is the number of elements and where $type_n is the type of the n-th element.

Value syntax:

($value_{0}, ..., $value_{N-1}) where $value_n is the value of the n-th element. Examples:

Tuple containing two bits elements: (0b100, 0b101)
A nested tuple containing various element types: ((1, 2), 42, [5, 6])

Token

A type used to enforce ordering between channel operations. The token type has no value and all tokens are identical. A token is purely symbolic / semantic and has no correlate in hardware.

Type syntax:

token

Functions, procs, and blocks

The XLS IR has three function-level abstractions each which hold a data-flow graph of XLS IR operations: functions, procs, and blocks. Names of function, procs and blocks must be unique among their respective abstractions (functions, procs, and blocks). For example, a block cannot share a name with another block but can share a name with a function.

Function

A function is a stateless abstraction with a single-output which is computed from zero or more input parameters. May invoke other functions.

Proc

A Proc is a stateful abstraction with an arbitrarily-typed recurrent state. Procs can communicate with other procs via channels which (abstractly) are infinite-depth FIFOs with flow control. Channel communication is handled via send and receive IR operations. Procs may invoke functions.

TODO(meheff): 2021/11/04 Expand to include more details.

Block

A Block is an RTL-level abstraction used for code generation. It corresponds to a single Verilog module. Procs and functions are converted to blocks as part of the code generation process. Blocks may “invoke” other blocks via instantiation. A block includes explicit representations of RTL constructs: ports, registers, and instantiations. The constructs are scoped within the block.

Port

A port is a representation of an input or output to the block. These correspond to ports on Verilog modules. Ports can be arbitrarily-typed. In the block, each port is represented with a input_port or output_port operation.

Register

A register is a representation of a hardware register (flop). Registers can be arbitrarily-typed. Each register must have a single register_write and a single register_read operation for writing and reading the register respectively.

Instantiation

An instantiation is a block-scoped construct that represents a module instantiation at the Verilog level. The instantiated object can be another block, a FIFO (not yet supported), or a externally defined Verilog module (not yet supported). The instantiation is integrated into the instantiating block with instantiation_input and instantiation_output operations. There is a one-to-one mapping between the instantiation input/output and the ports of the instantiated objects.

Operations

Operations share a common syntax and have both positional and keyword arguments à la Python. Positional arguments are ordered and must appear first in the argument list. Positional arguments are exclusively the identifiers of the operands. Keyword arguments are unordered and must appear after the positional arguments. Keyword arguments can include arbitrary value types.

result = operation(pos_arg_0, ..., pos_arg_N, keyword_0=value0, ..., keyword_M=valueM, ...)

Common keyword arguments

Keyword	Type	Required	Default	Description
`pos`	`SourceLocation`	no		The source location associated with this operation. The syntax is a triplet of comma-separated integer values: `Fileno,Lineno,Colno`

Unary bitwise operations

Performs a bit-wise operation on a single bits-typed operand.

Syntax

result = identity(operand)
result = not(operand)

Types

Value	Type
`operand`	`bits[N]`
`result`	`bits[N]`

Operations

Operation	Opcode	Semantics
`identity`	`Op::kIdentity`	`result = operand`
`not`	`Op::kNot`	`result = ~operand`

Variadic bitwise operations

Performs a bit-wise operation on one-or-more identically-typed bits operands. If only a single argument is provided the operation is a no-op.

Syntax

result = and(operand_{0}, ..., operand_{N-1})
result = or(operand_{0}, ..., operand_{N-1})
result = xor(operand_{0}, ..., operand_{N-1})

Types

Value	Type
`operand_{i}`	`bits[N]`
`result`	`bits[N]`

Operations

Operation	Opcode	Semantics
`and`	`Op::kAnd`	`result = lhs & rhs & ...`
`or`	`Op::kOr`	`result = lhs \| rhs \| ...`
`xor`	`Op::kXor`	`result = lhs ^ rhs ^ ...`

Arithmetic unary operations

Performs an arithmetic operation on a single bits-typed operand.

Syntax

result = neg(operand)

Types

Value	Type
`operand`	`bits[N]`
`result`	`bits[N]`

Operations

Operation	Opcode	Semantics
`neg`	`Op::kNeg`	`result = -operand`

Arithmetic binary operations

Performs an arithmetic operation on a pair of bits operands. Unsigned operations are prefixed with a 'u', and signed operations are prefixed with a 's'.

Syntax

result = add(lhs, rhs)
result = smul(lhs, rhs)
result = umul(lhs, rhs)
result = sdiv(lhs, rhs)
result = smod(lhs, rhs)
result = sub(lhs, rhs)
result = udiv(lhs, rhs)
result = umod(lhs, rhs)
result = smulp(lhs, rhs)
result = umulp(lhs, rhs)

Types

Currently signed and unsigned multiply, as wells as their partial product variants, support arbitrary width operands and result. For all other arithmetic operations the operands and the result are the same width. The expectation is that all arithmetic operations will eventually support arbitrary widths.

Operations

Operation	Opcode	Semantics
`add`	`Op::kAdd`	`result = lhs + rhs`
`sdiv`	`Op::kSDiv`	`result = $signed(lhs) / $signed(rhs)` * **
`smod`	`Op::kSMod`	`result = $signed(lhs) % $signed(rhs)` * ***
`smul`	`Op::kSMul`	`result = $signed(lhs) * $signed(rhs)`
`smulp`	`Op::kSMulp`	`result[0] + result[1] = $signed(lhs) * $signed(rhs)` ****
`sub`	`Op::kSub`	`result = lhs - rhs`
`udiv`	`Op::kUDiv`	`result = lhs / rhs` * **
`umod`	`Op::kUMod`	`result = lhs % rhs` *
`umul`	`Op::kUMul`	`result = lhs * rhs`
`umulp`	`Op::kUMulp`	`result[0] + result[1] = lhs * rhs` ****

* Synthesizing division or modulus can lead to failing synthesis and/or problems with timing closure. It is usually best not to rely on this Verilog operator in practice, but instead explicitly instantiate a divider of choice.

** Division rounds toward zero. For unsigned division this is the same as truncation. If the divisor is zero, unsigned division produces a maximal positive value. For signed division, if the divisor is zero the result is the maximal positive value if the dividend is non-negative or the maximal negative value if the dividend is negative.

*** The sign of the result of modulus matches the sign of the left operand. If the right operand is zero the result is zero.

**** The partial product multiply variants return a two-element tuple with both elements having the same type. The outputs are not fully constrained; the operations are free to return any values that sum to the product lhs * rhs.

Comparison operations

Performs a comparison on a pair of identically-typed bits operands. Unsigned operations are prefixed with a 'u', and signed operations are prefixed with a 's'. Produces a result of bits[1] type.

Syntax

result = eq(lhs, rhs)
result = ne(lhs, rhs)
result = sge(lhs, rhs)
result = sgt(lhs, rhs)
result = sle(lhs, rhs)
result = slt(lhs, rhs)
result = uge(lhs, rhs)
result = ugt(lhs, rhs)
result = ule(lhs, rhs)
result = ult(lhs, rhs)

Types

Value	Type
`lhs`	`bits[N]`
`rhs`	`bits[N]`
`result`	`bits[1]`

Operations

Operation	Opcode	Semantics
`eq`	`Op::kEq`	`result = lhs == rhs`
`ne`	`Op::kNe`	`result = lhs != rhs`
`sge`	`Op::kSGe`	`result = lhs >= rhs`
`sgt`	`Op::kSGt`	`result = lhs > rhs`
`sle`	`Op::kSLe`	`result = lhs <= rhs`
`slt`	`Op::kSLt`	`result = lhs < rhs`
`uge`	`Op::kUGe`	`result = lhs >= rhs`
`ugt`	`Op::kUGt`	`result = lhs > rhs`
`ule`	`Op::kULe`	`result = lhs <= rhs`
`ult`	`Op::kULt`	`result = lhs < rhs`

Shift operations

Performs an shift operation on an input operand where the shift amount is specified by a second operand.

Syntax

result = shll(operand, amount)
result = shra(operand, amount)
result = shrl(operand, amount)

Types

The shifted operand and the result of the shift are the same width. Widths of the shift amount may be arbitrary.

Operations

Operation	Opcode	Semantics
`shll`	`Op::kShll`	`result = lhs << rhs` *
`shra`	`Op::kShra`	`result = lhs >>> rhs` (arithmetic shift right) **
`shrl`	`Op::kShrl`	`result = lhs >> rhs` *

* Logically shifting greater than or equal to the number of bits in the lhs produces a result of zero.

** Arithmetic right shifting greater than or equal to the number of bits in the lhs produces a result equal to all of the bits set to the sign of the lhs.

Extension operations

Extends a bit value to a new (larger) target bit-length.

Syntax

result = zero_ext(x, new_bit_count=42)
result = sign_ext(x, new_bit_count=42)

Types

Value	Type
`arg`	`bits[N]`
`new_bit_count`	`int64_t`
`result`	`bits[new_bit_count]`

Note: new_bit_count should be >= N or an error may be raised.

`zero_ext`

Zero-extends a value: turns its bit-length into the new target bit-length by filling zeroes in the most significant bits.

`sign_ext`

Sign-extends a value: turns its bit-length into the new target bit-length by filling in the most significant bits (MSbs) with the following policy:

ones in the MSbs if the MSb of the original value was set, or
zeros in the MSbs if the MSb of the original value was unset.

Channel operations

These operations send or receive data over channels. Channels are monomorphic, and each channel supports a fixed set of data types which are sent or received in a single transaction.

`receive`

Receives a data value from a specified channel. The type of the data value is determined by the channel. An optional predicate value conditionally enables the receive operation. An optional blocking attribute determines whether the receive operation is blocking. A blocking receive waits (or blocks) until valid data is present at the channel. Compared to a blocking receive, a non-blocking receive has an additional entry in its return tuple of type bits[1] denoting whether the data read is valid.

result = receive(tkn, predicate=<pred>, blocking=<bool>, channel_id=<ch>)

Types

Value	Type
`tkn`	`token`
`pred`	`bits[1]`
`result`	`(token, T)` if `blocking` == `true` else `(token, T, bits[1])`

Keyword arguments

Keyword	Type	Required	Default	Description
`predicate`	`bits[1]`	no		A value is received iff `predicate` is true
`blocking`	`bool`	no	`true`	Whether the receive is blocking
`channel_id`	`int64_t`	yes		The ID of the channel to receive data from

If the predicate is false the data values in the result are zero-filled.

`send`

Sends data to a specified channel. The type of the data values is determined by the channel. An optional predicate value conditionally enables the send operation.

result = send(tkn, data, predicate=<pred>, channel_id=<ch>)

Types

Value	Type
`tkn`	`token`
`data`	`T`
`pred`	`bits[1]`
`result`	`token`

The type of data must match the type supported by the channel.

Keyword arguments

Keyword	Type	Required	Default	Description
`predicate`	`bits[1]`	no		A value is sent iff `predicate` is true
`channel_id`	`int64_t`	yes		The ID of the channel to send data to.

Array operations

`array`

Constructs an array of its operands.

result = array(operand_{0}, ..., operand_{N-1})

Types

Value	Type
`operand_{i}`	`T`
`result`	`T[N]`

Array can take an arbitrary number of operands including zero (which produces an empty array). The n-th operand becomes the n-th element of the array.

`array_index`

Returns a single element from an array.

Syntax

result = array_index(array, indices=[idx_{0}, ... , idx_{N-1}])

Types

Value	Type
`array`	Array of at least `N` dimensions
`idx_{i}`	Arbitrary bits type
`result`	`T`

Returns the element of array indexed by the indices idx_{0} ... idx_{N-1}. The array must have at least as many dimensions as number of index elements N. Each element idx_{i} indexes a dimension of array. The first element idx_{0} indexes the outer most dimension, the second element idx_{1} indexes the second outer most dimension, etc. The result type T is the type of array with the N outer most dimensions removed.

Any out-of-bounds indices idx_{i} are clamped to the maximum in bounds index for the respective dimension.

The table below shows examples of the result type T and the result expression assuming input array operand A.

Indices	Array type	result type `T`	Result expression
`{1, 2}`	`bits[3][4][5]`	`bits[3]`	`A[1][2]`
`{10, 2}`	`bits[3][4][5]`	`bits[3]`	`A[4][2]` (first index is out-of-bounds and clamped at the maximum index)
`{1}`	`bits[3][4][5]`	`bits[3][4]`	`A[1]`
`{}`	`bits[3][4][5]`	`bits[3][4][5]`	`A`
`{}`	`bits[32]`	`bits[32]`	`A`

`array_update`

Returns a modified copy of an array.

Syntax

result = array_update(array, value, indices=[idx_{0}, ... , idx_{N-1}])

Types

Value	Type
`array`	Array of at least `N` dimensions
`value`	`T`
`idx_{i}`	Arbitrary bits type
`result`	Same type as `array`

Returns a copy of the input array with the element at the given indices replaced with the given value. If any index is out of bounds, the result is identical to the input array. The indexing semantics is identical to array_index with the exception of out-of-bounds behavior.

Tuple operations

`tuple`

Constructs a tuple of its operands.

result = tuple(operand_{0}, ..., operand_{N-1})

Types

Value	Type
`operand_{i}`	`T_{i}`
`result`	`(T_{0}, ... , T_{N-1})`

Tuple can take and arbitrary number of operands including zero (which produces an empty tuple).

`tuple_index`

Returns a single element from a tuple-typed operand.

Syntax

result = tuple_index(operand, index=<index>)

Types

Value	Type
`operand`	`(T_{0}, ... , T_{N-1})`
`result`	`T_{<index>}`

Keyword arguments

Keyword	Type	Required	Default	Description
`index`	`int64_t`	yes		Index of tuple element to produce

Bit-vector operations

`bit_slice`

Slices a contiguous range of bits from a bits-typed operand.

Syntax

result = bit_slice(operand, start=<start>, width=<width>)

Types

Value	Type
`operand`	`bits[N]`
`result`	`bits[<width>]`

Keyword arguments

Keyword	Type	Required	Default	Description
`start`	`int64_t`	yes		The starting bit of the slice. `start` is is zero-indexed where zero is the least-significant bit of the operand.
`width`	`int64_t`	yes		The width of the slice.

The bit-width of operand must be greater than or equal to <start> plus <width>.

`bit_slice_update`

Replaces a contiguous range of bits in a bits-typed operand at a variable start index with a given value.

Syntax

result = bit_slice_update(operand, start, update_value)

Types

Value	Type
`operand`	`bits[N]`
`start`	`bits[I]`
`update_value`	`bits[M]`
`result`	`bits[N]`

Evaluates to operand with the contiguous M bits starting at index start replaced with update_value. Out-of-bound bits (which occur if start + M > N) are ignored. Examples:

`operand`	`start`	`update_value`	`result`
`bits[16]:0xabcd`	`0`	`bits[8]:0xff`	`bits[16]:0xabff`
`bits[16]:0xabcd`	`4`	`bits[8]:0xff`	`bits[16]:0xaffd`
`bits[16]:0xabcd`	`12`	`bits[8]:0xff`	`bits[16]:0xfbcd`
`bits[16]:0xabcd`	`16`	`bits[8]:0xff`	`bits[16]:0xabcd`

`dynamic_bit_slice`

Slices a contiguous range of bits from a bits-typed operand, with variable starting index but fixed width. Out-of-bounds slicing is supported by treating all out-of-bounds bits as having value 0.

Syntax

result = dynamic_bit_slice(operand, start, width=<width>)

Types

Value	Type
`operand`	`bits[N]`
`start`	`bits[M]`
`result`	`bits[<width>]`

start can be of arbitrary bit width. It will be interpreted as an unsigned integer.

Keyword arguments

Keyword	Type	Required	Default	Description
`width`	`int64_t`	yes		The width of the slice.

`concat`

Concatenates and arbitrary number of bits-typed operands.

result = concat(operand{0}, ..., operand{n-1})

Types

Value	Type
`operand_{i}`	`bits[N_{i}]`
`result`	`bits[Sum(N_{i})]`

This is equivalent to the verilog concat operator: result = {arg0, ..., argN}

`reverse`

Reverses the order of bits of its operand.

result = reverse(operand)

Types

Value	Type
`operand`	`bits[N]`
`result`	`bits[N]`

`decode`

Implements a binary decoder.

result = decode(operand, width=<width>)

Types

Value	Type
`operand`	`bits[N]`
`result`	`bits[M]`

The result width M must be less than or equal to 2**N where N is the operand width.

Keyword arguments

Keyword	Type	Required	Default	Description
`width`	`int64_t`	yes		Width of the result

decode converts the binary-encoded operand value into a one-hot result. For an operand value of n interpreted as an unsigned number the n-th result bit and only the n-th result bit is set. The width of the decode operation may be less than the maximum value expressible by the input (2**N - 1). If the encoded operand value is larger than the number of bits of the result the result is zero.

`encode`

Implements a binary encoder.

result = encode(operand, width=<width>)

Types

Value	Type
`operand`	`bits[N]`
`result`	`bits[M]`

The result width M must be equal to $$\lceil \log_{2} N \rceil$$.

encode converts the one-hot operand value into a binary-encoded value of the "hot" bit of the input. If the n-th bit and only the n-th bit of the operand is set the result is equal the value n as an unsigned number.

If multiple bits of the input are set the result is equal to the logical or of the results produced by the input bits individually. For example, if bit 3 and bit 5 of an encode input are set the result is equal to 3 | 5 = 7.

If no bits of the input are set the result is zero.

`one_hot`

Produces a bits value with exactly one bit set. The index of the set bit depends upon the input value.

Syntax

result = one_hot(input, lsb_prio=true)
result = one_hot(input, lsb_prio=false)

Types

Value	Type
`input`	`bits[N]`
`result`	`bits[N+1]`

Keyword arguments

Keyword	Type	Required	Default	Description
`lsb_prio`	`bool`	yes		Whether the least significant bit (LSb) has priority.

For lsb_prio=true: result bit i for 0 <= i < N is set in result iff bit i is set in the input and all lower bits j for j < i are not set in the input.

For lsb_prio=false: result bit i for N-1 >= i >= 0 is set in result iff bit i is set in the input and all higher (more significant) bits j for j > i are not set in the input.

For both lsb_prio=true and lsb_prio=false, result bit N (the most significant bit in the output) is only set if no bits in the input are set.

Examples:

one_hot(0b0011, lsb_prio=true) => 0b00001 -- note that an extra MSb has been appended to the output to potentially represent the "all zeros" case.
one_hot(0b0111, lsb_prio=false) => 0b00100.
one_hot(0b00, lsb_prio=false) => 0b100.
one_hot(0b00, lsb_prio=true) => 0b100 -- note the output for one_hot is the same for the all-zeros case regardless of whether lsb_prio is true or false.

This operation is useful for constructing match or switch operation semantics where a condition is matched against an ordered set of cases and the first match is chosen. It is also useful for one-hot canonicalizing, e.g. as a prelude to counting leading/trailing zeros.

Control-oriented operations

For context note that, in XLS, operations are evaluated eagerly in a very general sense: all "branches" of computation may be evaluated in full before the result is selected via an operation such as one_hot_sel or sel. This model is amenable to pipeline-like hardware execution, where operations tend to be fixed in some spatial area and operations execute a single function, while interconnect is used for reconfiguration purposes.

Towards this eager-evaluation-capable model, operations used within a function are generally not Turing-complete: operations such as counted_for require a finite bound so that they could be implemented using a finite amount of pipeline area. Operations such as dynamic_counted_for are an exception, where that operation will only be possible to use in a time-multiplexed code generation mode, such as the XLS sequential emitter, where arbitrary iteration to some dynamic bound is likely to be possible.

`param`

A parameter to the current IR function, which can be used as an operand for operations within the function.

Syntax

Parameters have a special syntactic form distinct from other nodes, where they are listed directly in the function signature with their type.

fn f(x: bits[32]) -> bits[32] {
  ret identity.2 = identity(x, id=2)
}

Types

Value	Type
`name`	`str`
`type`	`type`

`sel`

Selects between operands based on a selector value.

Syntax

result = sel(selector, cases=[case_{0}, ... , case_{N-1}], default=<default>)

Types

Value	Type
`selector`	`bits[M]`
`case_{i}`	`T`
`default`	`T`
`result`	`T`

`one_hot_sel`

Selects between operands based on a one-hot selector, OR-ing all selected cases if more than one case is selected.

See one_hot for an example of the one-hot selector invariant. Note that when the selector is not one-hot, this operation is still well defined.

Note that when one_hot operations are used to precondition the selector operand to one_hot_sel, the XLS optimizer will try to determine when they are unnecessary and subsequently eliminate them.

Syntax

result = one_hot_sel(selector, cases=[case_{0}, ... , case_{N-1}])

Types

Value	Type
`selector`	`bits[N]`
`case_{i}`	`T`
`result`	`T`

The result is the logical OR of all cases case_{i} for which the corresponding bit i is set in the selector. When selector is one-hot this performs a select operation.

`priority_sel`

Selects between operands based on a selector, choosing the highest-priority case if more than one case is selected. Each bit in the selector corresponds to a case, with the least significant bit corresponding to the first case and having the highest priority. If there are no bits in the selector set, no case is selected and the default value of 0 is chosen.

See one_hot for an example of the one-hot selector invariant. Note that when the selector is not one-hot, this operation is still well defined.

Note that when one_hot operations are used to precondition the selector operand to priority_sel, the XLS optimizer will try to determine when they are unnecessary and subsequently eliminate them.

Syntax

result = priority_sel(selector, cases=[case_{0}, ... , case_{N-1}])

Types

Value	Type
`selector`	`bits[N]`
`case_{i}`	`T`
`result`	`T`

The result is the first case case_{i} for which the corresponding bit i is set in the selector. If the selector is known to be one-hot, then the priority_sel() operation is equivalent to a one_hot_sel().

`invoke`

Invokes a function. The return value for the invoked function is the result value.

Syntax

result = invoke(operand_{0}, ... , operand_{N-1}, to_apply=<to_apply>)

Types

Value	Type
`init`	`T`
`result`	`T`

Keyword arguments

Keyword	Type	Required	Default	Description
`to_apply`	`string`	yes		Name of the function to use as the loop body

`map`

Applies a function to the elements of an array and returns the result as an array.

Syntax

result = map(operand, to_apply=<to_apply>)

Types

Value	Type
`operand`	`array[T]`
`result`	`array[U]`

Keyword arguments

Keyword	Type	Required	Default	Description
`to_apply`	`string`	yes		Name of the function to apply to each element of the operand

`dynamic_counted_for`

Invokes a dynamic-trip count loop.

Syntax

result = counted_for(init, trip_count, stride, body=<body>, invariant_args=<inv_args>)

Types

Value	Type
`init`	`T`
`trip_count`	`bits[N], treated as unsigned`
`stride`	`bits[M], treated as signed`,
`result`	`T`

Keyword arguments

Keyword	Type	Required	Default	Description
`invariant_args`	array of	yes		Names of the invariant operands as the loop body
`body`	`string`	yes		Name of the function to use as the loop body

dynamic_counted_for invokes the function body trip_count times, passing loop-carried data that starts with value init. The induction variable is incremented by stride after each iteration.

The first argument passed to body is the induction variable -- presently, the induction variable always starts at zero and increments by stride after every trip.
The second argument passed to body is the loop-carry data. The return type of body must be the same as the type of the init loop carry data. The value returned from the last trip is the result of the counted_for expression.
All subsequent arguments passed to body are passed from invariant_args; e.g. if there are two members in invariant_args those values are passed as the third and fourth arguments.

Therefore body should have a signature that matches the following:

body(i, loop_carry_data, [invariant_arg0, invariant_arg1, ...])

Note that we currently inspect the body function to see what type of induction variable (i above) it accepts in order to pass an i value of that type. trip_count must have fewer bits than i and stride should have fewer than or equal number of bits to i.

Code generation support for dynamic_counted_for is limited because the pipeline generator cannot handle an unknown trip count.

`counted_for`

Invokes a fixed-trip count loop.

Syntax

result = counted_for(init, trip_count=<trip_count>, stride=<stride>, body=<body>, invariant_args=<inv_args>)

Types

Value	Type
`init`	`T`
`result`	`T`

Keyword arguments

Keyword	Type	Required	Default	Description
`trip_count`	`int64_t`	yes		Trip count of the loop (number of times that the loop body will be executed)
`stride`	`int64_t`	no	1	Stride of the induction variable
`invariant_args`	array of	yes		Names of the invariant operands as the loop body
`body`	`string`	yes		Name of the function to use as the loop body

counted_for invokes the function body trip_count times, passing loop-carried data that starts with value init.

The first argument passed to body is the induction variable -- presently, the induction variable always starts at zero and increments by stride after every trip.
The second argument passed to body is the loop-carry data. The return type of body must be the same as the type of the init loop carry data. The value returned from the last trip is the result of the counted_for expression.
All subsequent arguments passed to body are passed from invariant_args; e.g. if there are two members in invariant_args those values are passed as the third and fourth arguments.

Therefore body should have a signature that matches the following:

body(i, loop_carry_data[, invariant_arg0, invariant_arg1, ...])

Note that we currently inspect the body function to see what type of induction variable (i above) it accepts in order to pass an i value of that type.

Sequencing operations

Some operations in XLS IR are sensitive to sequence order, similar to channel operations, but are not themselves channel-related. Tokens are used to determine the possible sequencing of these effects, and after_all can be used to join together tokens as a sequencing merge point for concurrent threads of execution described by different tokens.

`after_all`

Used to construct partial orderings among channel operations.

result = after_all(operand_{0}, ..., operand_{N-1})

Types

Value	Type
`operand_{i}`	`token`
`result`	`token`

after_all can consume an arbitrary number of token operands including zero.

Other side-effecting operations

Aside from channels operations such as send and receive several other operations have side-effects. Care must be taken when adding, removing, or transforming these operations, e.g., in the optimizer.

`assert`

Raises an error at software run-time (DSLX/IR interpretation, JIT execution, RTL simulation) if the given condition evaluates to false. The operation takes a literal string attribute which is included in the error message. This is a software-only operation and has no representation in the generated hardware. Tokens are used to connect the operation to the graph and order with respect to other side-effecting operations.

result = assert(tkn, condition, message=<string>)
result = assert(tkn, condition, message=<string>, label=<string>)

Types

Value	Type
`tkn`	`token`
`condition`	`bits[1]`
`result`	`token`

Keyword arguments

Keyword	Type	Required	Default	Description
`message`	`string`	yes		Message to include in raised error
`label`	`optional string`	yes		Label to associate with the assert statement in the generated (System)Verilog

`cover`

Records the number of times the given condition evaluates to true. Just like assert, this is a software-only construct and is not emitted in a final hardware design. Tokens are used to sequence this operation in the graph.

result = cover(tkn, condition, label=<string>)

Types

Value	Type
`tkn`	`token`
`condition`	`bits[1]`
`result`	`token`

Keyword arguments

Keyword	Type	Required	Default	Description
`label`	`string`	yes		Name associated with the counter.

`gate`

Gates an arbitrarily-typed value based on a condition.

The result of the operation is the data operand if the condition is true, otherwise the result is a zero value of the type of the data operand (i.e., the value is gated off). A helpful mnemonic is to think of this as analogous to an AND gate: if the condition is true, the value passes through, otherwise it's zeroed.

This operation can reduce switching and may be used in power optimizations. This is intended for use in operand gating for power reduction, and the compiler may ultimately use it to perform register-level load-enable gating.

The operation is considered side-effecting to prevent removal of the operation when the gated result (condition is false) is not observable. In this case the gate operation is still desirable because of the operations' effects on power consumption.

result = gate(condition, data)

Types

Value	Type
`condition`	`bits[1]`
`data`	`T`
`result`	`T`

RTL-level operations

These IR operations correspond to RTL-level constructs in the emitted Verilog. These operations are added and used in the code generation process and may only appear in blocks (not procs or functions).

`input_port`

Corresponds to an input port on a Verilog module.

Syntax

result = input_port()

Types

Value	Type
`result`	`T`

An input_port operation can be an arbitrary type.

`output_port`

Corresponds to an output port on a Verilog module. The value sent to the output port is the data operand.

Syntax

result = output_port(data)

Types

Value	Type
`data`	`T`
`result`	`T`

`register_read`

Reads a value from a register.

The register is defined on the block.

Syntax

result = register_read(register=<register_name>)

Types

Value	Type
`result`	`T`

The type T of the result of the operation is the type of the register.

Keyword arguments

Keyword	Type	Required	Default	Description
`register`	`string`	yes		Name of the register to read

`register_write`

Writes a value to a register.

The write to the register may be conditioned upon an optional load-enable and/or reset signal. The register is defined on the block.

Syntax

result = register_write(data, load_enable=<load_enable>, reset=<reset>, register=<register_name>)

Types

Value	Type
`data`	`T`
`load_enable`	`bits[1]` (optional)
`reset`	`bits[1]` (optional)
`result`	`()` (empty tuple)

Keyword arguments

Keyword	Type	Required	Default	Description
`register`	`string`	yes		Name of the register to write

The type T of the data operand must be the same as the the type of the register.

`instantiation_input`

Corresponds to a single input port of an instantiation.

An instantiation is a block-scoped construct that represents a module instantiation at the Verilog level. Each instantation_input operation corresponds to a particular port of the instantiated object, so generally a single instantiation can have multiple associated instantiation_input operations (one for each input port).

Syntax

result = instantiation_input(data, instantiation=<instantiation>, port_name=<port_name>)

Types

Value	Type
`data`	`T`
`result`	`()`

Keyword arguments

Keyword	Type	Required	Default	Description
`instantiation`	`string`	yes		Name of the instantiation.
`port_name`	`string`	yes		Name of the associated port of the instantiation.

The type T of the data operand must be the same as the the type of the associated input port of the instantiated object.

`instantiation_output`

Corresponds to a single output port of an instantiation.

An instantiation is a block-scoped construct that represents a module instantiation at the Verilog level. Each instantation_output operation corresponds to a output particular port of the instantiated object, so generally a single instantiation can have multiple associated instantiation_output operations (one for each output port).

Syntax

result = instantiation_output(instantiation=<instantiation>, port_name=<port_name>)

Types

Value	Type
`result`	`T`

Keyword arguments

Keyword	Type	Required	Default	Description
`instantiation`	`string`	yes		Name of the instantiation.
`port_name`	`string`	yes		Name of the associated port of the instantiation.

The type T of the result is type of the associated output port of the instantiated object.

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XLS: IR semantics

Data types

Bits

Array

Tuple

Token

Functions, procs, and blocks

Function

Proc

Block

Port

Register

Instantiation

Operations

Unary bitwise operations

Variadic bitwise operations

Arithmetic unary operations

Arithmetic binary operations

Comparison operations

Shift operations

Extension operations

zero_ext

sign_ext

Channel operations

receive

send

Array operations

array

array_index

array_update

Tuple operations

tuple

tuple_index

Bit-vector operations

bit_slice

bit_slice_update

dynamic_bit_slice

concat

reverse

decode

encode

one_hot

Control-oriented operations

param

sel

one_hot_sel

priority_sel

invoke

map

dynamic_counted_for

counted_for

Sequencing operations

after_all

Other side-effecting operations

assert

cover

gate

RTL-level operations

input_port

output_port

register_read

register_write

instantiation_input

instantiation_output

`zero_ext`

`sign_ext`

`receive`

`send`

`array`

`array_index`

`array_update`

`tuple`

`tuple_index`

`bit_slice`

`bit_slice_update`

`dynamic_bit_slice`

`concat`

`reverse`

`decode`

`encode`

`one_hot`

`param`

`sel`

`one_hot_sel`

`priority_sel`

`invoke`

`map`

`dynamic_counted_for`

`counted_for`

`after_all`

`assert`

`cover`

`gate`

`input_port`

`output_port`

`register_read`

`register_write`

`instantiation_input`

`instantiation_output`