Before this commit, each simulation engine (which is only pysim at
the moment, but also cxxsim soon) was a subclass of SimulatorCore,
and every simulation engine module would essentially duplicate
the complete structure of a simulator, with code partially shared.
This was a really bad idea: it was inconvenient to use, with
downstream code having to branch between e.g. PySettle and CxxSettle;
it had no well-defined external interface; it had multiple virtually
identical entry points; and it had no separation between simulation
algorithms and glue code.
This commit completely rearranges simulation code.
1. sim._base defines internal simulation interfaces. The clarity of
these internal interfaces is important because simulation
engines mix and match components to provide a consistent API
regardless of the chosen engine.
2. sim.core defines the external simulation interface: the commands
and the simulator facade. The facade provides a single entry
point and, when possible, validates or lowers user input.
It also imports built-in simulation engines by their symbolic
name, avoiding eager imports of pyvcd or ctypes.
3. sim.xxxsim (currently, only sim.pysim) defines the simulator
implementation: time and state management, process scheduling,
and waveform dumping.
The new simulator structure has none of the downsides of the old one.
See #324.
The redesign introduces no fundamental incompatibilities, but it does
involve minor breaking changes:
* The simulator commands were moved from hdl.ast to back.pysim
(instead of only being reexported from back.pysim).
* back.pysim.DeadlineError was removed.
Summary of changes:
* The new simulator compiles HDL to Python code and is >6x faster.
(The old one compiled HDL to lots of Python lambdas.)
* The new simulator is a straightforward, rigorous implementation
of the Synchronous Reactive Programming paradigm, instead of
a pile of ad-hoc code with no particular design driving it.
* The new simulator never raises DeadlineError, and there is no
limit on the amount of delta cycles.
* The new simulator robustly handles multiclock designs.
* The new simulator can be reset, such that the compiled design
can be reused, which can save significant runtime with large
designs.
* Generators can no longer be added as processes, since that would
break reset(); only generator functions may be. If necessary,
they may be added by wrapping them into a generator function;
a deprecated fallback does just that. This workaround will raise
an exception if the simulator is reset and restarted.
* The new simulator does not depend on Python extensions.
(The old one required bitarray, which did not provide wheels.)
Fixes#28.
Fixes#34.
Fixes#160.
Fixes#161.
Fixes#215.
Fixes#242.
Fixes#262.
These functions were originally changed in 3ed51938, in an attempt
to make them take one cycle instead of two. However, this does not
actually work because of drawbacks of the simulator interface.
Avoid committing to any specific implementation for now, and instead
make them compat-only extensions.
Because Fragment.prepare is not (currently) idempotent, it is useful
to be able to avoid calling it when converting. Even if it is made
idempotent, it can be slow on large designs, so it is advantageous
regardless of that.
Before this commit, the TransformedElaboratable of a CompatModule
would be ignored, and .get_fragment() would be used to retrieve
the CompatModule within.
After this commit, the finalization process is reworked to match
oMigen's finalization closely, and all submodules, native and compat,
are added in the same way that preserves applied transforms.
In compat.fhdl.module, we already default to "sync" as the default
clocked domain. Using "sys" in memories only would be inconsistent
and result in more bugs.
This means that instead of:
with m.Case(0b00):
<body>
with m.Case(0b01):
<body>
it is legal to write:
with m.Case(0b00, 0b01):
<body>
with no change in semantics, and slightly nicer RTLIL or Verilog
output.
Fixes#103.
