Subversion Repositories soc_maker

soc_maker
===========

The System-on-Chip (SoC) Maker is a tool to create SoC
in a simple way. 
At the moment, only command line interface (CLI) is supported.
It is intended, that future implementations will allow to 
create and manage SoC with a graphical user interface (GUI).

This software is in a development stage and highly experimental.


Features
--------

* A CLI for easy interaction
* All configuration files are YAML based 
  (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YAML)


Examples
--------

No real or useful examples have been tested, yet.
Only a simple script exists: examples/run.txt



Motivation
--------
The motivation of this project is the need of an open-source application
to create system-on-chips easily and fast on a higher level than vhdl or verilog.
By creating a generic application, it can support a wide range of 
processors, cores, controllers and bus-topologies. 
By using the SoC-Maker, it should be easy for a system-designer to assemble 
multiple IP-cores together with a low effort and without low-level knowledges.
Furthermore, pre-defined SoCs can be published and extended. This makes it 
interesting for IP-core developers. An existing SoC created with the
Soc-Maker can be easily extended by a custom IP core which is then tested 
and used.
Not only memory-mapped systems are a target application, also signal-processing
systems are interesting, where signal-processing blocks are concatenated.

One useful example is an Open-RISC based SoC, where it would be nice, if
core and system-developers can easily create a SoC with an
Open-RISC CPU. The need of a detailed knowledge of the Open-RISC, the Wishbone 
bus and so on is not needed anymore.

A second example is a any kind of wireless receiver, where signals are filtered, mixed,
decimated and further processed. All the signal processing can be put 
together into a subsystem with 
parameters (mixer-resolution, decimation-rate and son on). On a higher level, this
sub-system can then be used in a typical memory-mapped SoC together with other 
IP-cores and sub-systems.





The Goal
------------

The goal in one sentence: the SoC-Maker should make it possible to parameterize and assemble 
one or multiple IP-cores into one IP-core on a high level.


IP-core:
IP stands for Intellectual Property and the definition can be found on wikipedia: 
\url{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiconductor_intellectual_property_core}.


Parameterization:
Parameterization of IP-cores says, that the user can configure and setup all
required parameters of an IP-core.


Assembly:
Assembly in this context means, that the IP-cores are connected in a pre-defined
or user-defined way, that the final IP-core works as required by the 
user.


One or Multiple IP-cores:
The minimum number of IP-cores, which are used in such a system is one. Of course,
the common case is that more than one IP-core is used to create one final
IP-core.


Into one IP-core:
The assembly into one IP-core can be seen in different ways: on the one hand, 
this final IP-core can be seen as a System-on-Chip. On the other-hand, it can 
be defined as a subsystem with additional parameters. This parameters are then
passed to the single IP-cores. The subsystem, which is one big IP-core, can then
be used in other systems or sub-systems.


The High Level:
The high level says, that the user must not work on code or RTL level.
Furthermore, the high-level can can be different: one way could be
a graphical user interface. A second way might be an easy to read ASCII file 
written for example in XML, YAML or JSON.





Requirements
------------

 - The user is able to organize IP cores and interfaces in a library, which includes 
   * adding existing IP cores / interfaces
   * removing IP cores / interfaces
   * displaying IP cores (which are in the library)
   * adding IP cores to the target-SOC

 - There should be a library functionallity: the library should hold
   * core definitions
   * interface definitions
   

 - There should exist a core definition for each core. The definition should define the following data
   * all source files, which are required for synthesis only
   * all source files, which are required for simulation only
   * all source files, for synthesis and simulation
   * top-level source file
   * top-level port and parameters
   * parameter configuration and validation
   * an option to download/check out files from a repository (svn, git ...)


 - There should exist an interface specification for each interface used in the library
   * The interface specification defines, how the IP cores are connected
   * Allow versioning
   * Allow a wide range of topologies

 - There should be a SOC definition
   The SOC definition defines, which IP cores are used
   by the target-SOC, how they are connected and how the IP cores
   are parameterized.

 - IP-core configuration
   It must be possible to configure an IP core. The configurable parameters
   are defined in the IP-core definition and set in the SOC definition.
   The parameters are then used to instantiate the IP-core during the HDL generation

 - Toplevel-Generation
   The SoC maker should auto-generate a toplevel in VHDL or Verilog.
   Both HDL languages should be supported for generation.

 - Configuration Files
   All configuration should be stored in YAML files, this includes
   * SOC definition
   * Core definition
   * Interface specification
   * SoC maker configuration





Install
-------

sudo gem install

Author
------

Original author: Christian Haettich


License
-------

Copyright (C) 2014  Christian Haettich  - feddischson [ at ] opencores.org

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.