6. Bluespec frontend

SiliconCompiler has a Bluespec frontend that enables you to build Bluespec designs for any supported SC target. To get started using Bluespec with SC, ensure that SC is installed following the directions from the Installation section, and download bsc or install it from source following the directions here. For Ubuntu 20.04, we’ve additionally provided a setup script to build it from source automatically.

To build a Bluespec design, the only things you need to do differently from a configuration perspective are:

  1. Add the Bluespec top-level package as an ‘input’, and add all directories containing imported modules as entries in ['option', 'ydir']. Keep in mind that the Bluespec integration only supports specifying a single top-level source file, so you must use ['option', 'ydir'] for all other sources.

  2. Set the ['option', 'frontend'] parameter to ‘bluespec’.

Otherwise, you can configure the build as normal.

For example, to build this fibonacci example adapted from the bsc smoke test, first copy the following code into a file called “FibOne.bsv”.

interface FibOne_IFC;
   method Action nextFib;
   method ActionValue #(int)  getFib;
endinterface

(* synthesize *)
module mkFibOne(FibOne_IFC);
   // register containing the current Fibonacci value
   Reg#(int) this_fib <- mkReg (0);
   Reg#(int) next_fib <- mkReg (1);

   method Action nextFib;
      this_fib <= next_fib;
      next_fib <= this_fib + next_fib;  // note that this uses stale this_fib
  endmethod

  method ActionValue#(int) getFib;
    return this_fib;
  endmethod

endmodule: mkFibOne

Note

SC’s Bluespec driver script selects the module to build based on the ‘design’ parameter. You must ensure that the single file passed in via the ‘source’ parameter contains a module name that matches the value in ‘design’.

This design can then be quickly compiled to a GDS using the command line:

sc FibOne.bsv -design mkFibOne -frontend bluespec
sc-show -design mkFibOne

Or using Python:

import siliconcompiler

def main():
    chip = siliconcompiler.Chip('mkFibOne')
    chip.input('FibOne.bsv')
    chip.set('option', 'frontend', 'bluespec')
    # default Bluespec clock pin is 'CLK'
    chip.clock(pin='CLK', period=5)
    chip.load_target("freepdk45_demo")
    chip.run()
    chip.summary()
    chip.show()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

For more information on creating designs using Bluespec, see the Bluespec docs.