SoftHier Simulation Model in GVSoC 🚀

Attention

*This is the tmp branch only for dev purpose. *

SoftHier Architecture Overview 🏗️

OS Requirements Installation 🖥️

The following instructions are designed for a fresh installation of Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish).

To install the required packages, run:

sudo apt-get install -y build-essential git doxygen python3-pip libsdl2-dev curl cmake gtkwave libsndfile1-dev rsync autoconf automake texinfo libtool pkg-config libsdl2-ttf-dev

Toolchain and Shell Requirements 🔧

GVSoC requires the following tools and versions:

• g++ and gcc versions >= 11.2.0
• cmake version >= 3.18.1
• Python version >= 3.11.3

Please ensure your toolchain meets these requirements.

Also please make sure you are using the bash shell for SoftHier Simulation:

bash

Getting Started with SoftHier Simulation 🚀

Clone the Repository and Set Up the Environment 🏁

Follow these steps to set up the SoftHier simulation environment:

1. Clone the repository and navigate into the project directory:

   git clone https://github.com/gvsoc/gvsoc.git -b soft_hier_release soft_hier_release
   cd soft_hier_release

2. Initialize the simulator environment by running:

   source sourceme.sh

Build and Run the SoftHier Simulation Model 🧱

1. Build the SoftHier hardware model: 🛠️

   make hw

The default configuration file is located at soft_hier/flex_cluster/flex_cluster_arch.py. To use a custom architecture configuration, specify the file path as follows:

cfg=<path/to/your/architecture/configuration/file> make hw

2. Run the simulation with an example binary: 🎮

   ./install/bin/gvsoc --target=pulp.chips.flex_cluster.flex_cluster --binary examples/SoftHier/binary/example.elf run --trace=/chip/cluster_0/redmule

   • --binary: Specifies the executable binary to be loaded for the SoftHier simulation.
   • --trace: Indicates which component's trace logs should be generated during the simulation.

Build the Default Binary 💾

To build the default binary from the source code in soft_hier/flex_cluster_sdk/app_example, run:

make sw

The generated binary sw_build/softhier.elf and the dump file sw_build/softhier.dump will be located in the sw_build directory.

Build a Custom Binary ✏️

To build your own binary:

1. Prepare your source code in a folder with a CMakeLists.txt that defines the source files and include paths. For example:

   # CMakeLists.txt example
   set(SRC_SOURCES
       ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/main.c
   )
   
   set(SOURCES ${SRC_SOURCES} PARENT_SCOPE)
   set(INCLUDE_DIRS ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/include PARENT_SCOPE)

2. Run the following command, replacing <folder/of/your/code> with the path to your source code folder:

   app=<folder/of/your/code> make sw

This will compile the binary using the specified folder. The generated binary sw_build/softhier.elf and the dump file sw_build/softhier.dump will be located in the sw_build directory.

Build Customized Hardware and Software (Highly Recommended) 🧩

For convenient and flexible development, use the hs Makefile target to build both hardware and software together. This is particularly useful for custom architecture configurations and software development. Run:

cfg=<path/to/your/architecture/configuration/file> app=<folder/of/your/code> make hs

We provide example architecture configurations and software source code in the repository. Try the following:

Example 1: Hello World 🌍

cfg=examples/SoftHier/config/arch_test.py app=examples/SoftHier/software/test make hs; make run

Example 2: Dataflow 🎯

1. Systolic GEMM on 512-bit NoC Bus

   cfg=examples/SoftHier/config/arch_NoC512.py app=examples/SoftHier/software/gemm_systolic make hs; make runv

2. Systolic GEMM on 1024-bit NoC Bus

   cfg=examples/SoftHier/config/arch_NoC1024.py app=examples/SoftHier/software/gemm_systolic make hs; make runv

Example 3: GEMM with HBM Preloading 🚀

The examples/SoftHier/assembled/HBM_preload_example/ directory contains:

• config/ – Architecture configuration files.
• preload/ – Preloaded data files.
• software/ – Multi-cluster GEMM software.

1. Generating HBM Preload Data To generate an HBM preload binary from NumPy data, run:

python examples/SoftHier/assembled/HBM_preload_example/preload/hbm_data.py

This will create the preload binary at:

examples/SoftHier/assembled/HBM_preload_example/preload/preload.elf

2. Running SoftHier with HBM Preload To run SoftHier with the preloaded HBM data, use:

cfg=examples/SoftHier/assembled/HBM_preload_example/config/arch.py \
app=examples/SoftHier/assembled/HBM_preload_example/software \
pld=examples/SoftHier/assembled/HBM_preload_example/preload/preload.elf \
make hs runv

SoftHier Visualization 📈

To visualize a SoftHier simulation, follow these steps:

1. Run with the runv Makefile target.
2. Generate a Perfetto-format trace file using the pfto target. An integrated example

<args> make hs runv pfto

The trace file will be saved at:
📂 sw_build/perfetto.json

To view the trace, open the following URL in your browser:
👉 Perfetto UI

SoftHier Simulator Tutorial 📖

Tutorials are prepared in tutorial folder