The Berkeley Out-of-Order RISC-V Processor

The Berkeley Out-of-Order Machine (BOOM) is a synthesizable and parameterizable open source RV64GC RISC-V core written in the Chisel hardware construction language. While BOOM is primarily ASIC optimized, it is also usable on FPGAs. We support the FireSim flow to run BOOM at 90+ MHz on FPGAs on Amazon EC2 F1. Created at the University of California, Berkeley in the Berkeley Architecture Research group, its focus is to create a high performance, synthesizable, and parameterizable core for architecture research.

Feature	BOOM
ISA	RISC-V (RV64GC)
Synthesizable	√
FPGA	√
Parameterized	√
Floating Point (IEEE 754-2008)	√
Atomic Memory Op Support	√
Caches	√
Viritual Memory	√
Boots Linux	√
Privileged Arch v1.11	√
External Debug	√

Google group: (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/riscv-boom)

For documentation and publications on BOOM visit the BOOM website (www.boom-core.org/).

Important!

This repository is NOT A SELF-RUNNING repository. To instantiate a BOOM core, please use the boom-template SoC generator found in the git repository (https://github.com/riscv-boom/boom-template).

The current hash of rocket-chip that works with this repository is located in the ROCKETCHIP_VERSION file in the top level directory of this repository. This file is mainly used for CI purposes, since boom-template should follow the correct version of rocket-chip.

Note: you MUST build the riscv-tools as described to build the correct version. A copy of riscv-tools you have built yourself previously may be out of date! Likewise, the master branch of risv-tools may be running ahead and may also not work!

Requirements

You must set the $RISCV environment variable to where you would like the RISC-V toolchain to be installed. You must also add $RISCV/bin to your $PATH.

The instructions below will walk you through installing the RISC-V toolchain. If you run into problems, go to the README in riscv-tools for additional information.

Code Organization

The Chisel source code is found in src/main/scala:

bpu - branch predictor unit
exu - execute/core unit
ifu - instruction fetch unit
lsu - load/store/memory unit
common - configs, bundle, and tile definitions
system - Non-core system-level infrastructure
util - utilities

Directions

To build a BOOM Verilator emulator and its corresponding RISC-V toolchain, and run BOOM through a couple of simple tests:

   $ git clone https://github.com/riscv-boom/boom-template.git
   $ cd boom-template
   $ ./scripts/init-submodules.sh
   $ ./scripts/build-tools.sh 
   $ cd verisim
   $ make CONFIG=BoomConfig
   $ make run CONFIG=BoomConfig

There are many BOOM configurations to choose from (and modify!). In fact, the CONFIG variable defaults to BoomConfig, so it is not necessary to pass a CONFIG option.

Installing the RISC-V Toolchain

First, set the $RISCV environment variable (to where you want the toolchain to be installed). You will also need to add $RISCV/bin to your $PATH.

   $ git clone https://github.com/riscv-boom/boom-template.git
   $ cd boom-template
   $ git submodule update --init --recursive
   $ ./scripts/build-tools.sh

That's it.

For more detailed information on the toolchain, visit the riscv-tools repository.

Using the gem5 O3 Pipeline Viewer with BOOM

The O3 Pipeline Viewer is an out-of-order pipeline viewer included in the gem5 suite. BOOM is capable of generating traces compatible with the pipeline viewer, which is useful for understanding what causes pipeline stalls and flushes.

To generate gem5 compatible traces, first set O3PIPEVIEW_PRINTF in boom/src/main/scala/consts.scala to true:

val O3PIPEVIEW_PRINTF = true  // dump trace for O3PipeView from gem5

Rebuild and rerun BOOM. You should find the traces (*.out) in emulator/output/. To generate the visualization run:

   $ boom/util/pipeview-helper.py -f <TRACE_FILE> > cleaned_trace.out
   $ path_to_gem5/util/o3-pipeview.py --color --store_completions -o pipeview.out cleaned_trace.out

You can view the visualization by running:

   $ less -r pipeview.out

For more details (and to download o3-pipeview.py), visit the gem5 wiki.

More Info

Check out the BOOM website @ https://boom-core.org!

The Design Spec - https://docs.boom-core.org
Google group: - https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/riscv-boom
Chisel Learning Journey - https://github.com/librecores/riscv-sodor/wiki/Chisel-Learning-Journey
Tech Report - The Berkeley Out-of-Order Machine (BOOM): An Industry-Competitive, Synthesizable, Parameterized RISC-V Processor (https://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2015/EECS-2015-167.html)
CARRV Workshop Report - BOOM v2: an open-source out-of-order RISC-V core (https://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2017/EECS-2017-157.html)
Slides - RISC_V Workshop #3 (https://riscv.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Wed1345-RISCV-Workshop-3-BOOM.pdf)
Video - RISC-V Workshop #3 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuJDPbzWpR0)
Slides - RISC-V Workshop #2 (https://riscv.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/riscv-boom-workshop-june2015.pdf)
Video - RISC-V Workshop #2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8UInbiQbdA)

Disclaimer!

The RISC-V privileged ISA, platform, and Debug specs are still in flux. BOOM will do its best to stay up-to-date with it!

BOOM is a work-in-progress and remains in active development.

FAQ

Help! BOOM isn't working.

First verify the software is not an issue. Run spike first:

# Verify it works on spike.
spike my_program

# Then we can run on BOOM.
./emulator-freechips.rocketchip.system-SmallBoomConfig my_program

Also verify the riscv-tools you built is the one pointed to within the boom-template/rocket-chip/riscv-tools repository. Otherwise a version mismatch can easily occur!

Master branch is broken! How do I get a working BOOM?

The boom-template super-repo should always be pointing to a working boom/rocket-chip/riscv-tools combination. The master branch of riscv-boom may run ahead though. Ideally, master should never be broken, but it may be somewhat unstable as development continues. For more stability, I recommend using one of the tagged releases.

austinharris/riscv-boom