GHDL is an open-source analyzer, compiler and synthesizer for VHDL generating machine code from a Hardware Description Language. As it is not an interpreter, it allows for high speed simulation which is crucial for applications like the Microwatt, a tiny Open POWER ISA softcore.
In this tutorial you will be guided step-by-step in the setup of your environment for simulating Microwatt with GHDL.
Disclaimer: For the purpose of this tutorial I will be using an Ubuntu 20.04 system and I’ll assume you’re familiar with it.
Prerequisites
First of all, make sure you have this packages installed:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y build-essential gnat zlib1g-dev llvm-dev clang git
This includes the project’s dependencies, as well as git and the basic packages to build a project.
Installing GHDL
We’ll now clone and build GHDL.
git clone https://github.com/ghdl/ghdl.git
cd ghdl
./configure --prefix=/usr/local --enable-libghdl --with-llvm-config
make
make install
Install Microwatt
We are now ready to clone and build Microwatt.
git clone https://github.com/antonblanchard/microwatt.git
cd microwatt
make
Testing
Now that everything is installed we can run some code. Fortunately the project already includes a hello_world ready to be executed, just change the file to be executed and then run the simulation:
ln -s hello_world/hello_world.bin main_ram.bin
./core_tb > /dev/null
You should see a lightbulb being drawn on the terminal. But if you want something more substantial, you will find bundled a python runtime:
rm main_ram.bin
ln -s micropython/firmware.bin main_ram.bin
./core_tb > /dev/null
(Optional) Build MicroPython
To compile code for the Power platform you will need a cross compiler, luckily it is already in the Ubuntu repository. With that, just compile the project normally.
sudo apt install -y gcc-powerpc64le-linux-gnu
git clone https://github.com/micropython/micropython.git
cd micropython/ports/powerpc
make -j$(nproc) UART=lpc_serial
cd ../../../
rm main_ram.bin
ln -s ../micropython/ports/powerpc/build/firmware.bin main_ram.bin
./core_tb > /dev/null
Note that it is necessary to set the UART interface to lpc_serial when simulating using GHDL.
Compiling code
To compile code for the Power architecture you need the cross compiler shown in the optional section on MicroPython. With it installed, just duplicate the hello_world folder and use it as a base for your code. It is important to remember that the communication should be done using the headers provided by MicroWatt, as the terminal is redirected to the UART port.
Problems using WSL and Windows
You can do this entire process within WSL for Windows 10 and 11, but some people will experience random crashes when using the Home version of these systems. This is due to some incompatibility of the Virtual Machine Platform component with your hardware. A possible solution is to upgrade to Windows Pro, but I opted to use Ubuntu instead.
