Note that this functionality is only used by diagnostics emitted by
the C++ testbench; diagnostics emitted by the RTL in `eval()` do not
need to be recorded since they will be emitted again during replay.
This commit adds a `debug_scopes` container, which can collect metadata
about scopes in a design. Currently the only scope is that of a module.
A module scope can be represented either by a module and cell pair, or
a `$scopeinfo` cell in a flattened netlist. The metadata produced by
the C++ API is identical between these two cases, so flattening remains
transparent to a netlist with CXXRTL.
The existing `debug_items` method is deprecated. This isn't strictly
necessary, but the user experience is better if the path is provided
as e.g. `"top "` (as some VCD viewers make it awkward to select topmost
anonymous scope), and the upgrade flow encourages that, which should
reduce frustration later.
While the new `debug_items` method could still be broken in the future
as the C++ API permits, this seems unlikely since the debug information
can now capture all common netlist aspects and includes several
extension points (via `debug_item`, `debug_scope` types).
Also, naming of scope paths was normalized to `path` or `top_path`,
as applicable.
Before this commit, `at()` and `operator[]` did the same thing, making
one of them redundant. There was also a somewhat awkward `parts_at()`,
which is more generic than `at()`.
After this commit, `parts_at()` becomes `at()`, and `at()` becomes
`operator[]`. Any quick-and-dirty accesses should use `items["name"]`,
which expects a single-part item. Generic code should instead use
`items.at("name")`, which will return multiple parts. Both will check
for the existence of the name.
This is unlikely to break downstream code since it's likely been using
the shorter `operator[]`. (In any case this API is not stable.)
This avoids having to devirtualize them later to get performance back,
and simplifies the code a bit.
The change is prompted by the desire to add a similar observer object
to `eval()`, and a repeated consideration of whether the dispatch on
these should be virtual in first place.
The name `on_commit` was terrible since it would not be called, as one
may conclude from the name, on each `commit()`, but only whenever that
method actually updates a value.
This commit adds a reader/writer implementation for a file format
optimized for fast, single-pass storage and retrieval of design state
changes, as well as a recorder/replayer that integrate with the eval
and commit simulation steps to create replay logs and reproduce them
later.
This feature makes it possible to run a simulation once, recording
the stimulus as well as changes to the registers, and navigate to
a past time point in the simulation later without rerunning it.
Both the changes in inputs (stimulus) and changes in state are saved
so that navigation does not require calling `eval()` or `commit()`;
only a series of memory copy operations.
On a representative example of a SoC netlist, saving the replay log
while simulating it takes 150% of the time it would take to simulate
the same design without logging, which is a much lower overhead than
writing an equivalent full view (including memories) VCD waveform dump.
The replay log is also several times smaller than the VCD dump, and
more space savings are available as low hanging fruit.
Replaying the log has not been optimized and currently takes about
the same time as running the simulation in first place. However, it
is still useful since it provides fast navigation to an arbitrary time
point, something that rerunning the simulation does not allow for.
The current file format should be considered preliminary. It is not
very space-efficient, and my testing shows that a lot of time is spent
in the write() syscall in the kernel. Most likely, compression and/or
writing in another thread could improve performance by 10-20%. This
may be done at a later time.
