RISC-V ISA Simulator

Author : Andrew Waterman, Yunsup Lee

Date : June 19, 2011

Version : (under version control)

About

The RISC-V ISA Simulator implements a functional model of one or more RISC-V processors.

Build Steps

We assume that the RISCV environment variable is set to the RISC-V tools install path, and that the riscv-fesvr package is installed there.

$ mkdir build
$ cd build
$ ../configure --prefix=$RISCV --with-fesvr=$RISCV
$ make
$ [sudo] make install

Compiling and Running a Simple C Program

Install spike (see Build Steps), riscv-gnu-toolchain, and riscv-pk.

Write a short C program and name it hello.c. Then, compile it into a RISC-V ELF binary named hello:

$ riscv64-unknown-elf-gcc -o hello hello.c

Now you can simulate the program atop the proxy kernel:

$ spike pk hello

Simulating a New Instruction

Adding an instruction to the simulator requires two steps:

Describe the instruction's functional behavior in the file riscv/insns/<new_instruction_name>.h. Examine other instructions in that directory as a starting point.
Add the opcode and opcode mask to riscv/opcodes.h. Alternatively, add it to the riscv-opcodes package, and it will do so for you:

$ cd ../riscv-opcodes $ vi opcodes // add a line for the new instruction $ make install
Rebuild the simulator.

Interactive Debug Mode

To invoke interactive debug mode, launch spike with -d:

$ spike -d pk hello

To see the contents of an integer register (0 is for core 0):

: reg 0 a0

To see the contents of a floating point register:

: fregs 0 ft0

or:

: fregd 0 ft0

depending upon whether you wish to print the register as single- or double-precision.

To see the contents of a memory location (physical address in hex):

: mem 2020

To see the contents of memory with a virtual address (0 for core 0):

: mem 0 2020

You can advance by one instruction by pressing . You can also execute until a desired equality is reached:

: until pc 0 2020                   (stop when pc=2020)
: until mem 2020 50a9907311096993   (stop when mem[2020]=50a9907311096993)

Alternatively, you can execute as long as an equality is true:

: while mem 2020 50a9907311096993

You can continue execution indefinitely by:

: r

At any point during execution (even without -d), you can enter the interactive debug mode with <control>-<c>.

To end the simulation from the debug prompt, press <control>-<c> or:

: q

Debugging With Gdb

An alternative to interactive debug mode is to attach using gdb. When invoked with '--gdb-port ' spike will listen on the given TCP port. It's possible to attach with gdb (that has riscv support compiled in) by entering target remote localhost:<port> in gdb. For example, in one shell run:

spike --gdb-port 9824 pk tests/debug

Then in a second shell you may do something like:

tnewsome@compy-vm:~/SiFive/riscv-isa-sim$ $RISCV/bin/riscv64-unknown-elf-gdb tests/debug
GNU gdb (GDB) 7.11.50.20160212-git
Copyright (C) 2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.  Type "show copying"
and "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "--host=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu --target=riscv64-unknown-elf".
Type "show configuration" for configuration details.
For bug reporting instructions, please see:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/>.
Find the GDB manual and other documentation resources online at:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/documentation/>.
For help, type "help".
Type "apropos word" to search for commands related to "word"...
Reading symbols from tests/debug...done.
(gdb) target remote localhost:9824
Remote debugging using localhost:9824
0x00000000000101f0 in main ()
    at /home/tnewsome/SiFive/riscv-isa-sim/tests/debug.c:20
20          while (i)
(gdb) p i
$1 = 42
(gdb) list
15          volatile int i = 42;
16          const char *text = "constant\n";
17          int threshold = 7;
18
19          // Wait for the debugger to get us out of this loop.
20          while (i)
21              ;
22
23          printf("%s", text);
24          for (int y=0; y < 10; y++) {
(gdb) p i=0
$2 = 0
(gdb) b print_row
Breakpoint 1 at 0x10178: file /home/tnewsome/SiFive/riscv-isa-sim/tests/debug.c, line 7.
(gdb) c
Continuing.

Breakpoint 1, print_row (length=0)
    at /home/tnewsome/SiFive/riscv-isa-sim/tests/debug.c:7
7           for (int x=0; x<length; x++) {
(gdb) c
Continuing.

Breakpoint 1, print_row (length=1)
    at /home/tnewsome/SiFive/riscv-isa-sim/tests/debug.c:7
7           for (int x=0; x<length; x++) {
(gdb) delete breakpoints
Delete all breakpoints? (y or n) y
(gdb) c
Continuing.
Remote connection closed
(gdb)