Name
Title | ||
|---|---|---|
Reusability is FIRRTL ground: Hardware construction languages, compiler frameworks, and transformations. |
Abstract | ||
|---|---|---|
Enabled by modern languages and retargetable compilers, software development is in a virtual "Cambrian explosion" driven by a critical mass of powerfully parameterized libraries; but hardware development practices lag far behind. We hypothesize that existing hardware construction languages (HCLs) and novel hardware compiler frameworks (HCFs) can put hardware development on a similar evolutionary path by enabling new hardware libraries to be independent of underlying process technologies including FPGA mappings. We support this claim by (1) evaluating the degree with which Chisel, an existing HCL, can support powerfully parameterized libraries, and (2) introducing the concept and implementation of an HCF that uses an open-source hardware intermediate representation, FIRRTL (Flexible Intermediate Representation for RTL), to transform target-independent RTL into technology-specific RTL. Finally, we evaluate many hardware compiler transformations, including simplifying transformations, analyses, optimizations, instrumentations, and specializations, which demonstrate the power of a combined HCL and HCF approach.
|
Year | DOI | Venue |
|---|---|---|
2017 | 10.1109/ICCAD.2017.8203780 | ICCAD |
Keywords | Field | DocType |
RTL,Design,FPGA,ASIC,Hardware,Modeling,Reusability,Hardware Design Language,Hardware Construction Language,Intermediate Representation,Compiler,Transformations,Chisel,FIRRTL | Parameterized complexity,Critical mass (software engineering),Computer science,Field-programmable gate array,Application-specific integrated circuit,Compiler,Intermediate language,Computer hardware,Software development,Reusability | Conference |
ISSN | ISBN | Citations |
1933-7760 | 978-1-4503-5950-4 | 4 |
PageRank | References | Authors |
0.41 | 25 | 11 |
Name | Order | Citations | PageRank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adam M. Izraelevitz | 1 | 5 | 0.84 |
| Jack Koenig | 2 | 4 | 0.41 |
| Patrick Li | 3 | 4 | 0.75 |
| Richard Lin | 4 | 6 | 2.55 |
| Angie Wang | 5 | 4 | 0.41 |
| Albert Magyar | 6 | 13 | 2.24 |
| Dong Gyu Kim | 7 | 78 | 7.05 |
| Colin T. A. Schmidt | 8 | 25 | 5.94 |
| Chick Markley | 9 | 17 | 1.86 |
| Jim Lawson | 10 | 4 | 0.41 |
| Jonathan Bachrach | 11 | 965 | 89.77 |