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fpga-tool-perf

Analyze FPGA tool performance (MHz, resources, runtime, etc).

Setup

fpga-tool-perf uses the Miniconda (conda) package manager to install and get all the required tools. Currently, the following tools are available in conda:

  • vtr
  • nextpnr-xilinx
  • yosys (+ yosys-plugins)
  • prjxray

Prior to setting up the conda environment, the F4PGA and QuickLogic data files need to be installed through the following commands:

make install_f4pga
make install_quicklogic

The install packages are extracted in env/<toolchain>/.

To setup the conda environment, run the following commands:

TOOLCHAIN=f4pga make env
TOOLCHAIN=quicklogic make env
TOOLCHAIN=nextpnr make env

fpga-tool-perf can also run Vivado, which is not available in the conda environment and it needs to be installed by the user separately. The user also needs to set the VIVADO_SETTINGS environmental variable, which points to the settings64.sh file to enable Vivado.

Running

With the conda environment correctly installed, run the following to activate the environment:

source env.sh

Once the environment settings have been sourced, you are ready to proceed with the tests, as described below.

Quick start example

python3 fpgaperf.py --toolchain vivado --project oneblink --board arty-a35t

or

python3 fpgaperf.py --toolchain vpr --project oneblink --board basys3

For example, to compare a pure Vivado flow and Yosys -> Vivado flow for an xc7z device, use the following:

# Yosys -> Vivado
python3 fpgaperf.py --toolchain yosys-vivado --project oneblink --board basys3
# Pure Vivado
python3 fpgaperf.py --toolchain vivado --project oneblink --board basys3

Use --help to see additional parameters for the fpgaperf.py script.

Supported toolchains can be queried as follows:

$ python3 fpgaperf.py --list-toolchains
nextpnr-ice40
nextpnr-xilinx
nextpnr-xilinx-fasm2bels
vivado
vpr
vpr-fasm2bels
yosys-vivado

You can check if you have the toolchain environments correctly installed as follows:

$ python3 fpgaperf.py --check-env --toolchain vpr
vpr
  yosys: True
  vpr: True
  prjxray-config: True

Supported projects can be queried as follows:

$ python3 fpgaperf.py  --list-projects
baselitex
blinky
bram-n1
bram-n2
bram-n3
dram-test-64x1d
hamsternz-hdmi
ibex
murax
oneblink
picorv32
picosoc
picosoc-simpleuart
picosoc-spimemio
vexriscv
vexriscv-smp

Exhaustive build

Use exhaust.py to automatically test all projects, toolchain and boards supported:

python3 exhaust.py

It's also possible to run a test against specific project(s), toolchain(s), and/or board(s):

python3 exhaust.py --project blinky oneblink --toolchain vpr

See the build directory for output.

Project structure

This section describes the file and data structure used by this project to let you better understand its inner workings.

  • the project directory contains all the information relative to a specific test in respective YAML files. The data includes:

    • srcs: all the source files needed to run the test
    • top: top level module name of the design
    • name: project name. Note: project names shouldn't contain underscores such that they are clearly separated from other fields when combined into folder names.
    • data: all of the data/memory files needed to run the test
    • clocks: all the input clocks of the design
    • required_toolchains: all the toolchains that are required to correctly run to completion.
    • vendors: all the vendors that are enabled for this project (e.g. xilinx, lattice). Each vendor requires a list of boards enabled for the test project.

  • the src directory contains all the source files needed to build the test project. It also contains the constraints files relative to the various boards supported.

  • the other directory contains two YAML configuration files, describing all the supported boards and vendors in this test suite.

  • the toolchains directory contains the Python scripts that enable a toolchain to be run within fpga-tool-perf.

  • the infrastructure directory contains Python scripts to control the fpga-tool-perf framework to run the tests

Development

Wrapper

wrapper.py creates a simple Verilog interface against an arbitrary verilog module. This allows testing arbitrary Verilog modules against a standard pin configuration. The rough idea is taken from Project X-Ray.

Run wrappers.sh to regenerate all wrappers. Requires pyverilog.

wrapper.py (iverilog based) has the following known limitations:

  • Bidrectional ports are not supported
  • Spaces inside numbers are not supported (ex: 8' h00 vs 8'h00)
  • Attributes (sometimes?) are not supported (ex: (* LOC="HERE" *) )

As a result, sometimes the module definition is cropped out to make running the tool easier (ex: src/picorv32/picosoc/spimemio.v was cropped to src/picosoc_spimemio_def.v).

Inserting a New Project into fpga-tool-perf

These are the basic steps to inserting an existing project into fpga-tool-perf:

Step 1.

Add a folder within fpga-tool-perf/src under the name of the project (make sure there are no underscores - '_' - in the name). For example, for the project named counter:

cd ~/fpga-tool-perf/src
mkdir counter
cd counter

Add the source (Verilog) and data/memory files to this directory.

Create a constr subdirectory, and within it, add the project's .pcf (for F4PGA) and .xdc (for Vivado) files under the name of the board it uses.

mkdir constr
touch constr/basys3.pcf
touch constr/basys3.xdc

If you don't have both the .pcf and .xdc files, you can look at the other projects for examples of how the .xdc and .pcf code correspond.

Step 2.

Within the project directory, create a YAML file with the name of the project.

srcs:
  - src/counter/counter.v
top: top
name: counter
clocks:
  clk: 10.0
vendors:
  xilinx:
    - arty-a35t
    - arty-a100t
    - basys3
required_toolchains:
  - vivado
  - yosys-vivado
  - vpr

Step 3.

Test the newly added project with VPR and Vivado. For example:

python3 fpgaperf.py --project counter --toolchain vpr --board basys3
python3 fpgaperf.py --project counter --toolchain vivado --board basys3

There may be errors if your .xdc or .pcf files have the wrong syntax. Debug, modify, and run until it works, and you have successfully added a new project to fpga-tool-perf.