atenliao / dinocpu

A teaching-focused RISC-V CPU design used at UC Davis

Davis In-Order (DINO) CPU models

This repository contains Chisel implementations of the CPU models from Patterson and Hennessy's Computer Organization and Design (RISC-V Edition) primarily for use in UC Davis's Computer Architecture course (ECS 154B).

Any other educators are highly encouraged to take this repository and modify it to meet the needs of your class. Please open an issue with any questions or feature requests. We would also appreciate contributions via pull requests!

We published a summary paper on DINO CPU at the Workshop on Computer Architecture Education held with ISCA '19.

Jason Lowe-Power and Christopher Nitta. 2019. The Davis In-Order (DINO) CPU: A Teaching-focused RISC-V CPU Design. In Workshop on Computer Architecture Education (WCAE’19), June 22, 2019, Phoenix, AZ, USA. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 8 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3338698.3338892

The repository was originally cloned from https://github.com/ucb-bar/chisel-template.git.

Getting the code

To get the code, you can clone the repository that is in jlpteaching: jlpteaching/dinocpu.

git clone https://github.com/jlpteaching/dinocpu.git

Overview of code

The src/ directory:

• main/scala/
  • components/: This contains a number of components that are needed to implement a CPU. You will be filling in some missing pieces to these components in this lab. You can also find all of the interfaces between components defined in this file.
  • pipelined/: This is the code for the pipelined CPU. Right now, this is just an empty template. You will implement this in Lab 4.
  • single-cycle/: This is the code for the single cycle CPU. Right now, this is just an empty template. You will implement this in Lab 2.
  • configuration.scala: Contains a simple class to configure the CPU. Do not modify.
  • elaborate.scala: Contains a main function to output FIRRTL- and Verilog-based versions of the CPU design. You can use this file by executing runMain dinocpu.elaborate in sbt. More details below. Do not modify.
  • simulate.scala: Contains a main function to simulate your CPU design. This simulator is written in Scala using the Treadle executing engine. You can execute the simulator by using runMain dinocpu.simulate from sbt. This will allow you to run real RISC-V binaries on your CPU design. More detail about this will be given in Lab 2. Do not modify.
  • top.scala: A simple Chisel file that hooks up the memory to the CPU. Do not modify.
• test/
  • java/: This contains some Gradescope libraries for automated grading. Feel free to ignore.
  • resources/riscv: Test RISC-V applications that we will use to test your CPU design and that you can use to test your CPU design.
  • scala/
    • components/: Tests for the CPU components/modules. You may want to add additional tests here. Feel free to modify, but do not submit!
    • cpu-tests/: Tests the full CPU design. You may want to add additional tests here in future labs. Feel free to modify, but do not submit!
    • grading/: The tests that will be run on Gradescope. Note: these won't work unless you are running inside the Gradescope docker container. They should match the tests in components and cpu-tests. Do not modify. (You can modify, but it will be ignored when uploading to Gradescope.)

The documentation directory contains some documentation on the design of the DINO CPU as well as an introduction to the Chisel constructs required for the DINO CPU.

How to run

First you should set up the Singularity container or follow the documentation for installing Chisel.

There are three primary ways to interact with the DINO CPU code.

1. Running the DINO CPU tests.
2. Running the DINO CPU simulator.
3. Compiling the Chisel hardware description code into Verilog.

Compiling into Verilog

To compile your Chisel design into Verilog, you can run the elaborate main function and pass a parameter for which design you want to compile. As an example:

sbt:dinocpu> runMain dinocpu.elaborate single-cycle

The generated verilog will be available in the root folder as Top.v along with some meta-data. You may also get some generated verilog for auxillary devices like memory as Top.<device_name>.v

Compiling code for DINO CPU

See Compiling code to run on DINO CPU for details on how to compile baremetal RISC-V programs and compile full C applications.

Documentation for Teachers

• Creating the code templates
• Setting up grading on Gradescope
• Updating the Singularity container

DINO CPU-based assignments

The assignments directory contains some assignments that we have used at UC Davis with the DINO CPU.

• Assignment 1: Introduction assignment which begins the design of the DINO CPU with implementing the R-type instructions only.
• Assignment 2: A full implementation of a single-cycle RISC-V CPU. This assignment walks students through each type of RISC-V instruction.
• Assignment 3: Pipelining. This assignment extends assignment 2 to a pipelined RISC-V design.
• Assignment 4: Adding a branch predictor. In this assignment, students implement two different branch predictors and compare their performance.