Project 2: A RV32C Toy CPU

IMPORTANT INFO - PLEASE READ

The projects are part of your design project worth 2 credit points. As such they run in parallel to the actual course. So be aware that the due date for project and homework might be very close to each other! Start early and do not procrastinate.

Overview

In this individual project, you will embark on a two-step journey to create a toy RVC CPU. Before diving into the task, please pay close attention to the following important points:

Introduction

This excerpt from the RISC-V User-Level ISA Specification describes the current draft proposal for the RISC-V standard compressed instruction set extension, named “C”, which reduces static and dynamic code size by adding short 16-bit instruction encodings for common operations. The C extension can be added to any of the base ISAs (RV32, RV64, RV128), and we use the generic term “RVC” to cover any of these. Typically, 50%–60% of the RISC-V instructions in a program can be replaced with RVC instructions, resulting in a 25%–30% code-size reduction. In this project, we will build a CPU that solely supports some of the RVC instructions.

Project 2.1: Implement CI and CR type instructions (DDL: May 7th)

In this part, your task involves implementing all CI and CR type instructions shown in The Instruction Set below. Feel free to refer to the advice provided in the How to Get Started section to kickstart your circuit adventure.

The Instruction Set

The instructions you need to implement are shown in the table below:

Format ISA OP[1:0] Funct3 Implementation
CR add 10 100 x[rd] = x[rd] + x[rs2]
CR mv 10 100 x[rd] = x[rs2]
CI addi 01 000 x[rd] = x[rd] + sext(imm)
CI slli 10 000 x[rd] = x[rd] << uimm
CI li 01 010 x[rd] = sext(imm)
CI lui 01 011 x[rd] = sext(imm[17:12] << 12)
CI nop 01 000 None
CSS swsp 10 110 M[x[2] + uimm][31:0] = x[rs2]
CIW addi4spn 00 000 x[8+rd'] = x[2] + nzuimm
CL lw 00 010 x[8+rd'] = sext(M[x[8+rs1'] + uimm][31:0])
CS sw 00 110 M[x[8+rs1'] + uimm][31:0] = x[8+rs2']
CB beqz 01 110 if (x[8+rs1'] == 0) pc += sext(offset)
CJ j 01 101 pc += sext(offset)

A detailed description of compressed instruction formats is provided in The RISC-V Compressed Instruction Set Manual, Version 1.9. Some important information is also provided below. Please note that there are different versions of RVC instructions, and referencing other documents or webpages may result in failing the test.

Instruction Formats

2024-04-10-15-38-55-image.png

Table 1.1 shows the eight compressed instruction formats. CR, CI, and CSS can use any of the 32 RVI registers, but CIW, CL, CS, and CB are limited to use only 8 of them, which are registers x8 to x15 listed in Table 1.2. In project 2, you do not need to implement all 32 registers, please refer to the Restriction section for details.

Tips: you can try to decode the instruction to opcode, register address, immediate and so on firstly.

CR Format

CR FUNCT4 RD/RS1 RS2 OPCODE
Bits 4 5 5 2
C.ADD 1001 dest≠ 0 src≠ 0 10
C.MV 1000 dest≠ 0 src≠ 0 10

CI Format

CI FUNCT3 IMM RD/RS1 IMM OPCODE
Bits 3 1 5 5 2
C.LI 010 imm[5] dest≠ 0 imm[4:0] 01
C.LUI 011 nzimm[17] dest≠{0,2} nzimm[16:12] 01
C.ADDI 000 nzimm[5] dest≠ 0 nzimm[4:0] 01
C.SLLI 000 shamt[5] dest≠ 0 shamt[4:0] 10

CL Format

CL FUNCT3 IMM RS1' IMM RD' OPCODE
Bits 3 3 3 2 3 2
C.LW 010 offset[5:3] base offset[2|6] dest 00

CS Format

CS FUNCT3 IMM RS1' IMM RS2' OPCODE
Bits 3 3 3 2 3 2
C.SW 110 offset[5:3] base offset[2|6] src 00

CSS Format

CSS FUNCT3 IMM RS2' OPCODE
Bits 3 6 5 2
C.SWSP 110 offset[5:2|7:6] src 10

CIW Format

CIW FUNCT3 IMM rd' OPCODE
Bits 3 8 3 2
C.ADDI4SPN 000 zimm[5:4|9:6|2|3] dest 00

CJ Format

CJ FUNCT3 JUMP TARGET OPCODE
Bits 3 11 2
C.J 101 offset[11|4|9:8|10|6|7|3:1|5] 01

CB Format

CB FUNCT3 IMM RD'/RS1' IMM OPCODE
Bits 3 3 3 5 2
C.BEQZ 110 offset[8|4:3] src offset[7:6|2:1|5] 01

TOP I/O

The inputs and outputs of top level are fixed in TOP circuit. It's not allowed to add extra pins in TOP circuit in your submission. Fail to comply with this may result in losing all your points!

Type signal bit width description
input clk 1 clock
input rst 1 reset
input inst 16 RVC instruction
input mem_dout 32 data from memory
input current_pc 32 current pc value
output mem_wen 1 memory write enable
output mem_din 32 data written to memory
output mem_ren 1 memory read enable
output alu_result 32 result calculated by alu
output control_en 1 enable writing value to pc
output control_pc 32 value written to pc
output wb_en 1 regfile write enable
output wb_addr 5 address written to regfile
output wb_data 32 data written to regfile

Some of these pins are not involved in Project 2.1 but will be used in Project 2.2, so you can temporarily ignore them.

Fetch

Throughout this project, you will work with the Fetch module provided by the TA. This module assumes that

Additionally, you have the flexibility to incorporate sub-circuits to explore the functionality of the Fetch module. Doing so will enhance your understanding of its operational principles.

How to get start

Here is a simple template to get started. Please download and unzip it first. Opening proj_2_1.circ with logisim-evolution, you will find several subcircuits inside it.

Here are some suggestions for your information:

Test

Test for all CR and CI type instruction has been included with the template package. You can run it with the command./test.sh. The provided test case is carried out in the order (LI-LI-LUI-LUI-SLLI-ADD-MV-ADDI-ADDI), and errors in the previous instructions may result in incorrect results in the later ones even if you implement them correctly.

The 8000 instruction utilizes a reserved instruction space to generate the halt signal. This signal serves the same purpose as the halt signal in Lab 5, which is to terminate the execution of the auto-test script. While this signal is crucial for the auto-test script, it does not produce any additional effects. Please be aware that when the 8000 instruction is executed, your system should not generate any significant output. The Autograder will not evaluate the output of this instruction.

In submission, you need to correctly implement at least one of LI or LUI to ensure that the other instructions can be successfully tested.

Restriction

In order to reduce your workload and help you pass the test smoothly, some restrictions are stipulated as follows. You should read this section carefully as it may not be consistent with the content in the Instruction Set Manual.


In project 2.1 are,

Siting Liu <liust AT shanghaitech.edu.cn>

and

Yutong Wang <wangyt32023 AT shanghaitech.edu.cn>

Last modified: 2024-04-19