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Running standalone simulations

Simulating the CVA6 is done by using verif/sim/cva6.py.

The environment variable DV_SIMULATORS allows you to specify which simulator to use.

Four simulation types are supported:

  • veri-testharness: verilator with corev_apu/testharness testbench
  • veri-testharness-pk: verilator with corev_apu/testharness and RISC-V Proxy Kernel (for system-level software)
  • vcs-testharness: vcs with corev_apu/testharness testbench
  • vcs-uvm: vcs with UVM testbench
  • Spike ISS

You can set several simulators, such as :

export DV_SIMULATORS=veri-testharness,vcs-testharness,vcs_uvm

If exactly 2 simulators are given, their trace is compared (see the Regression tests section).

Here is how you can run the hello world C program with the Verilator model:

# Make sure to source this script from the root directory 
# to correctly set the environment variables related to the tools
source verif/sim/setup-env.sh

# Set the NUM_JOBS variable to increase the number of parallel make jobs
# export NUM_JOBS=

export DV_SIMULATORS=veri-testharness

cd ./verif/sim

python3 cva6.py --target cv32a60x --iss=$DV_SIMULATORS --iss_yaml=cva6.yaml \
--c_tests ../tests/custom/hello_world/hello_world.c \
--linker=../../config/gen_from_riscv_config/linker/link.ld \
--gcc_opts="-static -mcmodel=medany -fvisibility=hidden -nostdlib \
-nostartfiles -g ../tests/custom/common/syscalls.c \
../tests/custom/common/crt.S -lgcc \
-I../tests/custom/env -I../tests/custom/common"

You can run either assembly programs (check verif/test/custom/hello_world/custom_test_template.S) or C programs. Run python3 cva6.py --help to have more information on the available parameters.

Simulating with the RISC-V proxy kernel

When running C programs, a common requirement is to use standard library functions like printf. On a bare-metal core, these functions do not work because they rely on underlying system calls that have no operating system to handle them. The veri-testharness-pk simulation mode solves this by integrating the RISC-V proxy kernel, which acts as a lightweight service layer to handle these calls (e.g. to properly display printf output).

A reference script is provided to demonstrate this flow. It automatically builds the proxy kernel and runs a hello_world test on both a 64-bit and a 32-bit target. To run the simulation, execute the following from the repository root:

bash verif/regress/veri-testharness-pk-tests.sh

The C program associated with this test contains printf statement(s) with some text. The associated .log.iss logfile will display the corresponding text, confirming that the printf statement was executed properly.

For more information about this simulation mode, installation directories, logfiles, refer to the comments in verif/regress/veri-testharness-pk-tests.sh and verif/regress/install-pk.sh. For general information regarding simulation logfiles, see the Logs section.

Simulating with VCS and Verdi

You can set the environment variable VERDI as such if you want to launch Verdi while simulating with VCS:

export VERDI=1

Running regression tests simulations

The smoke-tests script installs a random instruction generator and several tests suites:

The regression tests are done by comparing a model simulation trace with the Spike trace.

Several tests scripts can be found in ./verif/regress

For example, here is how would run the riscv-arch-test regression test suite with the Verilator model:

export DV_SIMULATORS=veri-testharness,spike
bash verif/regress/dv-riscv-arch-test.sh

Logs

The logs from cva6.py are located in ./verif/sim/out_YEAR-MONTH-DAY.

Assuming you ran the smoke-tests scripts in the previous step, here is the log directory hierarchy:

  • directed_asm_tests/: The compiled (to .o then .bin) assembly tests
  • directed_c_tests/: The compiled (to .o then .bin) c tests
  • spike_sim/: Spike simulation log and trace files
  • veri_testharness_sim: Verilator simulation log and trace files, when simulated using veri-testharness
  • veri-testharness-pk_sim: Verilator simulation log and trace files, when simulated using veri-testharness-pk
  • iss_regr.log: The regression test log

The regression test log summarizes the comparison between the simulator trace and the Spike trace. Beware that a if a test fails before the comparison step, it will not appear in this log, check the output of cva6.py and the logs of the simulation instead.

Waveform generation

Waveform generation is currently supported for Verilator (veri-testharness) and VCS with full UVM testbench (vcs-uvm) simulation types. It is disabled by default to save simulation time and storage space.

To enable waveform generation for a supported simulation mode, set either of the two shell variables that control tracing before running any of the test scripts under verif/regress:

  • export TRACE_FAST=1 enables "fast" waveform generation (keep simulation time low at the expense of space). This will produce VCD files when using Verilator, and VPD files when using Synopsys VCS with UVM testbench (vcs-uvm).
  • export TRACE_COMPACT=1 enables "compact" waveform generation (keep waveform files smaller at the expense of increased simulation time). This will produce FST files when using Verilator, and FSDB files when using Synopsys VCS with UVM testbench (vcs-uvm).

To generate VCD waveforms of the smoke-tests regression suite using Verilator, use:

export DV_SIMULATORS=veri-testharness,spike
export TRACE_FAST=1
bash verif/regress/smoke-tests-<cpu_version>.sh

Where <cpu_version> is one of the following, depending on the CPU variant you want to use.

  • cv32a65x.
  • cv32a6_imac_sv32.
  • cv64a6_imafdc_sv39.

After each simulation run involving Verilator or VCS, the generated waveforms will be copied to the directory containing the log files (see above,) with the name of the current HW configuration added to the file name right before the file type suffix (e.g., I-ADD-01.cv32a60x.vcd).