README

README for the T48 uController project
======================================


Introduction
------------

The T48 µController core is an implementation of the MCS-48 microcontroller
family architecture. While being a controller core for SoC, it also aims for
code-compatability and cycle-accuracy so that it can be used as a drop-in
replacement for any MCS-48 controller.
It can be configured to better suit the requirements and characteristics of
the integrating system. On the other hand, nearly the full functionality of
stock 8048/8049 and 8021/8022 is available.

The core also provides a variant that implements the specific features of the
UPI-41A/41AH/42/42AH device family.


Download
--------

You can get the latest version of the design files from github:

  https://github.com/devsaurus/t48

Please keep in mind that this is work in progress and might contain smaller or
bigger problems.
You should also check the Tracker for known bugs and see if they affect your
work.


Installation
------------

Once the directory structure is generated either by check-out from CVS or by
unpacking the tar-archive, the central project initialization file should be
set up. A template called init_project.template.sh is located in the sw
directory where a copy can be edited. Normally, only the definition for the
variable PROJECT_DIR has to be adjusted to the path where the directory
structure is located.
The commands for setting the necessary variables assume a bash/sh-like
shell. In case you run a different shell like csh or ksh, you should adjust
these commands as well.

The meaning of the variables is as follows:

  * PROJECT_DIR
    Points to the root of the project installation. All further references are
    derived from its setting.

  * VERIF_DIR
    Location of the verification suite.

  * SIM_DIR
    Directory for running simulations.

These variables must be properly set whenever scripts or makefiles of the T48
project are executed. Otherwise, you will most likely encounter error
messages.

NOTE: The concepts of the mentioned shells require that the init_project.sh is
      run in the context of the shell. I.e. you should 'source' the script
      instead of executing it like a command. This will make sure that the
      variable settings are really effective in the calling shell instance.


Directory Structure
-------------------

The project's directory structure follows the proposal of OpenCores.org.

t48
 |
 \--+-- rtl
    |    |
    |    \-- vhdl           : VHDL code containing the RTL description
    |         |               of the core.
    |         +-- system    : RTL VHDL code of sample systems.
    |         |
    |         \-- t8243     : RTL VHDL code of 8243 core.
    |
    +-- bench
    |    |
    |    \-- vhdl           : VHDL testbench code.
    |
    +-- sim
    |    |
    |    \-- rtl_sim        : Directory for running simulations.
    |
    +-- syn
    |    |
    |    \-- t8048          : T8048 toplevel example synthesis.
    |         |
    |         +-- b5x300    : for SpartanIIe 300.
    |         |
    |         \-- jopcyc    : for Cyclone EP1C12.
    |
    \-- sw                  : General purpose scripts and files.
         |
         +-- i8039emu       : An MCS-48 emulator written in C.
         |
         \-- verif          : The verification suite.
              |
              +-- include   : Global includes and makefiles.
              |
              +-- black_box : Black-box verification tests.
              |
              +-- white_box : White-box verification tests.
              |
              \-- gp_sw     : General purpose software.


Compiling the VHDL Code
-----------------------

VHDL compilation and simulation tasks take place inside in sim/rtl_sim
directory. The project setup supports only the batch mode of certain
simulators. However, there should be no problems to integrate the testbench
and RTL code into arbitrary simulation environments.

The main file for compilation is Makefile.hier which contains all information
regarding the dependencies of the source files and their compilation
order. There is a dedicated file for each supported simulator that maps the
generic information of Makefile.hier to object files specific to the given
simulator.

Compilation is based on the make-utility, thus invocation looks like this:

$ make

Make will analyze all VHDL files (RTL and testbench code) and elaborate all
testbench top-levels if appropriate for the chosen simulator:

  * tb
    The main testbench for regression testing.
    Instantiates the plain t48_core and provides internal RAM (256 bytes) and
    ROM (2k bytes) plus 2k bytes of external ROM.

  * tb_t8048
    The testbench for the t8048 sample system.

  * tb_t8039
    The testbench for the 8039 sample system.

  * tb_t8243
    Testbench containing the t48_core and the synchronous t8243 flavour.

  * tb_t8048_t8243
    Testbench containing the t8048 and the asynchronous t8243 toplevel.

  * tb_t8041
    Testbench containing the t8041 sample system.

  * tb_t8041a
    Testbench containing the t8041a sample system.

  * tb_t8042ah
    Testbench containing the t8042ah sample system.

  * tb_t8021
    Testbench containing the t8021 sample system.

  * tb_t8022
    Testbench containing the t8022 sample system.

The Makefile has a 'clean' target to delete all intermediate data:

$ make clean

The basic simple sequence list can be found in COMPILE_LIST. This can be
useful to quickly set up the analyze stage of any compiler or
synthesizer. Especially when synthesizing the code, you want to skip the VHDL
configurations in *-c.vhd and everything below the bench/ directory.

Preparation of the ROM Files
----------------------------

All testbenches listed above need two files in hex-format. They contain the
program for the T48 core and are loaded into internal and external ROM at
simulation startup. Their existance is mandatory as they are referenced in the
VHDL code of the ROM model lpm_rom.vhd. In case they are missing, the
simulation will stop immediately after elaborating the design.

These files are:

  * rom_t49.hex
    Internal ROM contents for t8x49 and t8042ah derivatives,
    address range 000H to 7FFH.
    Intel hex format, starting at address 000H.

  * rom_t49_ext.hex
    External ROM contents for t8x49 derivatives,
    address range 800H to FFFH.
    Intel hex format, starting at address 800H.

  * rom_t48.hex
    Internal ROM contents for t8x48 and t8041x derivatives,
    address range 000H to 3FFH.
    Intel hex format, starting at address 000H.

  * rom_t48_ext.hex
    External ROM contents for t8x48 derivatives,
    address range 400H to FFFH.
    Intel hex format, starting at address 000H.

  * rom_t3x.hex
    Internal ROM contents for t803x derivatives,
    empty.

  * rom_t3x_ext.hex
    External ROM contents for t803x derivatives,
    address range 000H to FFFH.
    Intel hex format, starting at address 000H.

The verification flow for the T48 project generates these files
automatically from the assembler source files.

All regression tests and the general purpose software is organized in a cell
structure. Currently, this means that the software for a cell is contained in
a dedicated directory where the assembler run takes place. In the future,
there will be more aspects to a cell.

Assembling, linking and putting the hex-files in place is under the control of
the make-mechanism. E.g. to assemble the source code of a cell, issue the
following command:

$ make -f $VERIF_DIR/include/Makefile.cell

This generates the linker file (test.p) and distributes its contents to the
required ROM files for internal and external program ROM. The target 'simu'
copies these files automatically to the simulation directory. So most likely,
for running a test case or any other software, you will want to issue:

$ make -f VERIF_DIR/include/Makefile.cell all clean

The 'all' target generates hex files for all supported testbenches.

The only supported assembler is Alfred Arnold's macroassembler AS. See

  http://john.ccac.rwth-aachen.de:8000/as/


Verification Environment
------------------------

The verification environment consists of a number of test programs. They are
all self-checking. I.e. after testing the targeted functionality, they emit a
pass/fail information. This information is detected by the testbench which
stops the simulation and prints out the simulation result. This is the default
mechanism for stopping the VHDL simulation.

Pass/fail is signalled by a certain sequence of the accumulator contents:

  1) Accumulator contains AAH
  2) Accumulator contains 55H
  3) Accumulator contains 01H   -> Pass
     Accumulator contains 00H   -> Fail

The detection is modelled like a state machine and in case the sequence is of
bytes inside the accumulator does not match, the detection process restarts
from the beginning. This mechanism is part of all verification tests.

The complete regression suite can be executed with the run_regression.pl
script. For each test cell, it steps through the sequence

  1) Assemble the source code
  2) Run the compiled VHDL design (currently only GHDL)
  3) Optionally perform a dump compare against the C-model

It is highly recommended to redirect the output of run_regression.pl into a
file. Otherwise, analyzing the messages related to each test cell is almost
impossible.


FPGA Implementation
-------------------

All of the design files contain pure RTL code. Also the RAM for the data
memory is described by generic RTL code. It should be translated automatically
by the tool chain to a technology specific RAM macro.

There is a generic method for the program memory ROM as well, although this
project uses a flow where hex-files are loaded by lpm_rom.vhd as the default
method. Convert the ROM image to an RTL VHDL file with one of the two
following commands (either from hex or bin format):

  $ hex2rom -b [rom image file] rom_t48 10l8s > rom_t48.vhd
  $ hex2rom -b [rom image file] rom_t49 11l8s > rom_t49.vhd

The option -b specifies that [rom image file] contains binary data. Skip this
option to process a file in hex format.

These resulting RTL representations are instantiated by t48_rom-struct-a.vhd
and t49_rom-struct-a.vhd. Altera and Xilinx design tools will detect and
extract the ROM and turn it into a memory macro.