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AFU Development Guide: OFS for Intel® Intel® Agilex® 7 FPGA SoC Attach FPGAs

Last updated: May 07, 2024

1. Introduction

This document is a design guide for the creation of an Accelerator Functional Unit (AFU) using Open FPGA Stack (OFS) for Intel® Agilex® 7 FPGAs SoC Attach. The AFU concept consists of separating out the FPGA design development process into two parts, the construction of the foundational FPGA Interface Manager (FIM), and the development of the Acceleration Function Unit (AFU), as shown in the diagram below.

This diagram shows the separation of FPGA board interface development from the internal FPGA workload creation. This separation starts with the FPGA Interface Manager (FIM) which consists of the external interfaces and board management functions. The FIM is the base system layer and is typically provided by board vendors. The FIM interface is specific to a particular physical platform. The AFU makes use of the external interfaces with user defined logic to perform a specific application. By separating out the lengthy and complicated process of developing and integrating external interfaces for an FPGA into a board allows the AFU developer to focus on the needs of their workload. OFS for Intel® Agilex® 7 FPGAs SoC Attach provides the following tools for rapid AFU development:

  • Scripts for both compilation and simulation setup
  • Optional Platform Interface Manager (PIM) which is a set of SystemVerilog shims and scripts for flexible FIM to AFU interfacing
  • Acceleration Simulation Environment (ASE) which is a hardware/software co-simulation environment scripts for compilation and Acceleration
  • Integration with Open Programmable Acceleration Engine (OPAE) SDK for rapid software development for your AFU application

Please notice in the above block diagram that the AFU region consists of static and partial reconfiguration (PR) regions where the PR region can be dynamically reconfigured while the remaining FPGA design continues to function. Creating AFU logic for the static region is described in FPGA Interface Manager Developer Guide: OFS for Intel® Agilex® SoC Attach FPGAs. This guide covers logic in the AFU Main region.

1.1. Document Organization

This document is organized as follows:

  • Description of design flow
  • Interfaces and functionality provided in the Intel® Agilex® 7 FPGAs SoC Attach FIM
  • Setup of the AFU Development environment
  • Synthesize the AFU example
  • Testing the AFU example on the Intel IPU Platform F2000X-PL card
  • Hardware/Software co-simulation using ASE
  • Debugging an AFU with Remote Signal Tap

This guide provides theory followed by tutorial steps to solidify your AFU development knowledge.

NOTE:

This guide uses the Intel® Infrastructure Processing Unit (Intel® IPU) Platform F2000X-PL as the platform for all tutorial steps. Additionally, this guide and the tutorial steps can be used with other Intel® Agilex® 7 FPGAs SoC Attach platforms..

Some of the document links in this guide are specific to the Intel IPU Platform F2000X-PL . If using a different platform, please use the associated documentation for your platform as there could be differences in building the FIM and downloading FIM images.

If you have worked with previous Intel Programmable Acceleration products, you will find out that OFS for Intel® Agilex® 7 FPGAs SoC Attach is similar. However, there are differences and you are advised to carefully read and follow the tutorial steps to fully understand the design tools and flow.

1.2. Prerequisite

This guide assumes you have the following FPGA logic design-related knowledge and skills:

  • FPGA compilation flows including the Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition design flow
  • Static Timing closure, including familiarity with the Timing Analyzer tool in Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition software, applying timing constraints, Synopsys* Design Constraints (.sdc) language and Tcl scripting, and design methods to close on timing critical paths.
  • RTL and coding practices to create synthesizable logic.
  • Understanding of AXI and Avalon memory mapped and streaming interfaces.
  • Simulation of complex RTL using industry standard simulators (Synopsys® VCS® or Siemens® QuestaSim®).
  • Signal Tap Logic Analyzer tool in the Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition software.

You are strongly encouraged to review the FPGA Interface Manager Developer Guide: OFS for Intel® Agilex® SoC Attach FPGAs

1.3. Acceleration Functional Unit (AFU) Development Flow

The AFU development flow is shown below:

1.3.1. Understanding Platform Capabilities

The block diagram of the F2000x Board is shown below:

The FIM provided with this release is shown below:

This release FIM provides the following features:

  • Host interface
    • PCIe Gen4 x 16
    • 2 - PFs
    • MSI-X interrupts
    • Logic to demonstrate simple PCIe loopback
  • Network interface
    • 2 - QSFP28/56 cages
    • 8 X 25 GbE with exerciser logic demonstrating traffic generation/monitoring
  • External Memory - DDR4 - 2400
    • 4 Banks - 4 GB organized as 1 Gb x 32 with 1 Gb x 8 ECC
    • Memory exerciser logic demonstrating external memory operation
  • Board Management
    • SPI interface
    • FPGA management and configuration
    • Example logic showing DFH operation
  • Partial reconfiguration control logic
  • SoC - Xeon Icelake-D subsystem with embedded Linux
    • PCIe Gen4 x 16 interface to FPGA
    • 1 - PF, 3 - VF, AXI-S TLP packets
    • DDR Memory
      • 2 Banks - 8 GB organized as 1 Gb x 64 with 1 Gb x 8 ECC
      • NVMe SSD - 64 GB

1.3.2. High Level Data Flow

The OFS high level data flow is shown below:

1.3.3. Considerations for PIM Usage

An early decision for your AFU development is determining if the PIM will be included in your design flow. The PIM is an abstraction layer consisting of a collection of SystemVerilog interfaces and shims to enable partial AFU portability across hardware despite variations in hardware topology and native interfaces. The PIM adds a level of logic between an accelerator (an AFU) and the platform (the FIM). The use of the PIM is optional for AFU development. Please see Connecting an AFU to a Platform using PIM for details on using the PIM and its capabilities. Please see PIM Tutorial for a detailed tutorial on using the PIM. The learning steps in the tutorial can be run with the OFS for Agilex FIM package.

If you choose not to use the PIM, please see the hybrid and afu_main examples in the PIM Tutorial for instruction on using a traditional RTL design flow. Note, the example AFU provided in OFS does not include PIM.

1.3.4. AFU Interfaces Included with Intel IPU Platform F2000X-PL

The figure below shows the interfaces available to the AFU in this architecture. It also shows the design hierarchy with module names from the fim (top.sv) to the PR region AFU (afu_main.sv). One of the main differences from the Stratix 10 PAC OFS architecture to this one is the presence of the static port gasket region (port_gasket.sv) that has components to facilitate the AFU and also consists of the PR region (afu_main.sv) via the PR slot. The Port Gasket contains all the PR specific modules and logic, e.g., PR slot reset/freeze control, user clock, remote STP etc. Architecturally, a Port Gasket can have multiple PR slots where user workload can be programmed into. However, only one PR slot is supported for OFS Release for Intel Agilex. Everything in the Port Gasket until the PR slot should be provided by the FIM developer. The task of the AFU developer is to add their desired application in the afu_main.sv module by stripping out unwanted logic and instantiating the target accelerator. As shown in the figure below, here are the interfaces connected to the AFU (highlighted in green) via the SoC Attach FIM:

  1. AXI Streaming (AXI-S) interface to the Host via PCIe Gen4x16
  2. AXI Memory Mapped Channels (4) to the DDR4 EMIF interface
  3. AXI Streaming (AXI-S) interface to the HSSI 25 Gb Ethernet

2. Set Up AFU Development Environment

This section covers the setup of the AFU development environment.

2.1. Prepare AFU development environment

A typical development and hardware test environment consists of a development server or workstation with FPGA development tools installed and a separate server with the target OFS compatible FPGA PCIe card installed. The typical usage and flow of data between these two servers is shown below:

Note: both development and hardware testing can be performed on the same server if desired.

This guide uses Intel IPU Platform F2000X-PL as the target OFS compatible FPGA PCIe card for demonstration steps. The Intel IPU Platform F2000X-PL must be fully installed following the Getting Started User Guide: OFS for Intel® Agilex® SoC Attach FPGAs. If using a different OFS FPGA PCIe card, contact your supplier for instructions on how to install and operate user developed AFUs.

The following is a summary of the steps to set up for AFU development:

  1. Install Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition Version 23.2 for Linux with Agilex device support and required Quartus patches.
  2. Make sure support tools are installed and meet version requirements.
  3. Install OPAE SDK.
  4. Download the Basic Building Blocks repository.
  5. Build or download the relocatable AFU PR-able build tree based on your Intel® Agilex FPGA PCIe Attach FIM.
  6. Download FIM to the Intel® Agilex FPGA PCIe Attach platform.

Building AFUs with OFS for Agilex requires the build machine to have at least 64 GB of RAM.

2.2. Installation of Quartus and required patches

Intel Quartus Prime Pro Version 23.2 is verified to work with the latest OFS release 2023.2. However, you have the option to port and verify the release on newer versions of Intel Quartus Prime Pro software.

Use RedHatEnterprise Linux® (RHEL) 8.6 for compatibility with your development flow and also testing your FIM design in your platform.

Prior to installing Quartus:

  1. Ensure you have at least 64 GB of free space for Quartus Prime Pro installation and your development work.

    • Intel® recommends that your system be configured to provide virtual memory equal in size or larger than the recommended physical RAM size that is required to process your design.
    • The disk space may be significantly more based on the device families included in the install. Prior to installation, the disk space should be enough to hold both zipped tar files and uncompressed installation files. After successful installation, delete the downloaded zipped files and uncompressed zip files to release the disk space.
  2. Perform the following steps to satisfy the required dependencies.

    $ sudo dnf install -y gcc gcc-c++ make cmake libuuid-devel rpm-build autoconf automake bison boost boost-devel libxml2 libxml2-devel make ncurses grub2 bc csh flex glibc-locale-source libnsl ncurses-compat-libs 
    

    Apply the following configurations.

    $ sudo localedef -f UTF-8 -i en_US en_US.UTF-8 
    $ sudo ln -s /usr/lib64/libncurses.so.6 /usr/lib64/libncurses.so.5 
    $ sudo ln -s /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/python
    
  3. Create the default installation path: /intelFPGA_pro/, where is the default path of the Linux workstation, or as set by the system administrator and is your Quartus version number.

    The installation path must satisfy the following requirements:

    • Contain only alphanumeric characters
    • No special characters or symbols, such as !$%@^&*<>,
    • Only English characters
    • No spaces
  4. Download your required Quartus Prime Pro Linux version here.

  5. After running the Quartus Prime Pro installer, set the PATH environment variable to make utilities quartus, jtagconfig, and quartus_pgm discoverable. Edit your bashrc file ~/.bashrc to add the following line:

    export PATH=<Quartus install directory>/quartus/bin:$PATH
    export PATH=<Quartus install directory>/qsys/bin:$PATH
    

    For example, if the Quartus install directory is /home/intelFPGA_pro/23.2 then the new line is:

    export PATH=/home/intelFPGA_pro/23.2/quartus/bin:$PATH
    export PATH=/home/intelFPGA_pro/23.2/qsys/bin:$PATH
    
  6. Verify, Quartus is discoverable by opening a new shell:

    $ which quartus
    /home/intelFPGA_pro/23.2/quartus/bin/quartus
    

2.3. Installation of Support Tools

Make sure support tools are installed and meet version requirements.

The OFS provided Quartus build scripts require the following tools. Verify these are installed in your development environment.

Item Version
Python 3.6.8
GCC 7.2.0
cmake 3.15
git 1.8.3.1
perl 5.8.8

2.4. Installation of OPAE SDK

Follow the instructions in the Getting Started Guide: Open FPGA Stack for Intel IPU Platform F2000X-PL, section 6.2 Installing the OPAE SDK On the Host to build and install the required OPAE SDK for the Intel IPU Platform F2000X-PL.

Working with the Intel® Intel IPU Platform F2000X-PL card requires opae-2.5.0-3. Follow the instructions in the Getting Started Guide: Intel® Open FPGA Stack for Intel IPU Platform F2000X-PL section 6.2 Installing the OPAE SDK On the Host. Make sure to check out the cloned repository to tag 2.5.0-3 and branch release/2.5.0.

$ git checkout tags/2.5.0-3 -b release/2.5.0

Note: The tutorial steps provided in the next sections assume the OPAE SDK is installed in default system locations, under the directory, /usr. In most system configurations, this will allow the OS and tools to automatically locate the OPAE binaries, scripts, libraries and include files required for the compilation and simulation of the FIM and AFUs.

2.5. Download the Basic Building Blocks repositories

The ofs-platform-afu-bbb repository contains the PIM files as well as example PIM-based AFUs that can be used for testing and demonstration purposes. This guide will use the host_chan_mmio AFU example in the ofs-platform-afu-bbb repository and the hello_world sample in the examples AFU repository to demonstrate how to synthesize, load, simulate, and test a PIM-based AFU using the Intel IPU Platform F2000X-PL card with the SoC Attach FIM.

Execute the next commands to clone the BBB repositories.

  # Create top level directory for AFU development
$ mkdir OFS_BUILD_ROOT
$ cd OFS_BUILD_ROOT
$ export OFS_BUILD_ROOT=$PWD

  # Clone the ofs-platform-afu-bbb repository.
$ cd $OFS_BUILD_ROOT
$ git clone https://github.com/OFS/ofs-platform-afu-bbb.git

  # Verify retrieval
$ cd $OFS_BUILD_ROOT/ofs-platform-afu-bbb
$ ls
LICENSE  plat_if_develop  plat_if_release  plat_if_tests  README.md

The documentation in the ofs-platform-afu-bbb repository further addresses - The PIM concept. - The structure of the PIM-based AFU examples. - How to generate a release and configure the PIM. - How to connect an AFU to an FIM.

2.6. Build or download the relocatable PR build tree

A relocatable PR build tree is needed to build the AFU partial reconfiguration area for the intended FIM. The tree is relocatable and may be copied to a new location. It does not depend on files in the original FIM build.

You can use the Intel IPU Platform F2000X-PL release package and download the PR build tree and FIM images, to develop your AFU. These are located at OFS-F2000X-PL release

Or you can build your own FIM and generated the PR build tree during the process.

To download and untar the pr_build_template:

$ cd $OFS_BUILD_ROOT
$ wget https://github.com/OFS/ofs-f2000x-pl/releases/download/ofs-2023.2-1/pr_build_template.tar.gz
$ tar -zxvf pr_build_template.tar.gz
$ cd pr_build_template
$ export OPAE_PLATFORM_ROOT=$PWD

To build your own FIM and generate the PR build tree for the Intel IPU Platform F2000X-PL platform, refer the FPGA Interface Manager Developer Guide: OFS for Intel® Agilex® SoC Attach FPGAs and follow the Out-of-Tree PR FIM build flow. If you are using a different platform, refer to the FPGA Interface Manager Developer Guide for your platform and follow the Out-of-Tree PR FIM build flow.

2.7. Download FIM to FPGA

The AFU requires that the FIM from which the AFU is derived be loaded onto the FPGA.

If you are using the Intel IPU Platform F2000X-PL release package, download the associated FIM files:

$ wget https://github.com/OFS/ofs-f2000x-pl/releases/download/ofs-2023.2-1/ofs_top_page1_unsigned_user1.bin
$ wget https://github.com/OFS/ofs-f2000x-pl/releases/download/ofs-2023.2-1/ofs_top_page2_unsigned_user2.bin

If you are generating your own FIM, use the unsigned FPGA binary images from your FIM build.

To downlaod the FIM to the Intel IPU Platform F2000X-PL platform:

$ sudo fpgasupdate ofs_top_page1_unsigned_user1.bin <F2000x SKU2 PCIe b:d.f>
$ sudo fpgasupdate ofs_top_page2_unsigned_user2.bin <F2000x SKU2 PCIe b:d.f>
$ sudo rsu fpga --page=user1 <F2000x SKU2 PCIe b:d.f>

If you are using a different platform, refer to the documentation for your platform to download the FIM images onto your Intel® Agilex® SoC Attach Platform.

2.8. Set up required Environment Variables

Set the required environment variables as shown below. These environment variables must be set prior to simulation or compilation tasks. You can create a simple script to set these variables and save time going forward.

# If not already done, export OFS_BUILD_ROOT to the top level directory for AFU development
$ export OFS_BUILD_ROOT=<path to ofs build directory>

# If not already done, export OPAE_PLATFORM_ROOT to the PR build tree directory
$ export OPAE_PLATFORM_ROOT=<path to pr build tree>

# Quartus Tools
# Note, QUARTUS_HOME is your Quartus installation directory, e.g. $QUARTUS_HOME/bin contains Quartus executable.
$ export QUARTUS_HOME=<user_path>/intelFPGA_pro/23.2/quartus
$ export QUARTUS_ROOTDIR=$QUARTUS_HOME
$ export QUARTUS_INSTALL_DIR=$QUARTUS_ROOTDIR
$ export QUARTUS_ROOTDIR_OVERRIDE=$QUARTUS_ROOTDIR
$ export IMPORT_IP_ROOTDIR=$QUARTUS_ROOTDIR/../ip
$ export IP_ROOTDIR=$QUARTUS_ROOTDIR/../ip
$ export QSYS_ROOTDIR=$QUARTUS_ROOTDIR/../qsys
$ export PATH=$QUARTUS_HOME/bin:$QSYS_ROOTDIR/bin:$QUARTUS_HOME/sopc_builder/bin/:$PATH

# Synopsys Verification Tools

$ export DESIGNWARE_HOME=<user_path>/synopsys/vip_common/vip_Q-2020.03A
$ export PATH=$DESIGNWARE_HOME/bin:$PATH
$ export VCS_HOME=<user_path>/synopsys/vcsmx/S-2021.09-SP1/linux64/rhel
$ export PATH=$VCS_HOME/bin:$PATH

# OPAE SDK release
$ export OPAE_SDK_REPO_BRANCH=release/2.5.0

# The following environment variables are required for compiling the AFU examples. 

# Location to clone the ofs-platform-afu-bbb repository which contains PIM files and AFU examples.
$ export OFS_PLATFORM_AFU_BBB=$OFS_BUILD_ROOT/ofs-platform-afu-bbb 

# OPAE and MPF libraries must either be on the default linker search paths or on both LIBRARY_PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH.  
$ export OPAE_LOC=/usr
$ export LIBRARY_PATH=$OPAE_LOC/lib:$LIBRARY_PATH
$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$OPAE_LOC/lib64:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

3. Compiling an AFU

In this section, you will use the relocatable PR build tree created in the previous steps from the FIM to compile an example PIM-based AFU. This section will be developed around the host_chan_mmio and hello_world AFU examples to showcase the synthesis of a PIM-based AFU.

The build steps presented below demonstrate the ease in building and running an actual AFU on the board. To successfully execute the instructions in this section, you must have set up your development environment and have a relocateable PR Build tree as instructed in section 2 of this document.

The build steps presented below demonstrate the ease in building and running an actual AFU on the board. To successfully execute the instructions in this section, you must have set up your development environment and have a relocateable PR Build tree as instructed in section 2 of this document.

3.1. Creating the AFU Synthesis Environment

The PIM flow provides the script afu_synth_setup to create the synthesis environment to build the AFU examples. See how to use it below.

usage: afu_synth_setup [-h] -s SOURCES [-p PLATFORM] [-l LIB] [-f] dst

Generate a Quartus build environment for an AFU. A build environment is
instantiated from a release and then configured for the specified AFU. AFU
source files are specified in a text file that is parsed by rtl_src_config,
which is part of the OPAE base environment.

positional arguments:
  dst                   Target directory path (directory must not exist).

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -s SOURCES, --sources SOURCES
                        AFU source specification file that will be passed to
                        rtl_src_config. See "rtl_src_config --help" for the
                        file's syntax. rtl_src_config translates the source
                        list into either Quartus or RTL simulator syntax.
  -p PLATFORM, --platform PLATFORM
                        FPGA platform name.
  -l LIB, --lib LIB     FPGA platform release hw/lib directory. If not
                        specified, the environment variables OPAE_FPGA_HW_LIB
                        and then BBS_LIB_PATH are checked.
  -f, --force           Overwrite target directory if it exists.

3.2. Building and Running host_chan_mmio example AFU

The $OFS_PLATFORM_AFU_BBB/plat_if_tests/host_chan_mmio is a simple example demonstrating both hardware and software access to an AFU. The host_chan_mmio example AFU consists of the following files. The hw directory contains the RTL to implement the hardware functionality using Avalon and AXI interfaces. However, this guide will use the AXI version of the host_chan_mmio AFU to go through the compilation steps. The sw directory of the AFU contains the source code of the host application that communicates with the actual AFU hardware.

host_chan_mmio
├── hw
   └── rtl
       ├── avalon
          ├── afu_avalon512.sv
          ├── afu_avalon.sv
          ├── ofs_plat_afu_avalon512.sv
          ├── ofs_plat_afu_avalon_from_ccip.sv
          └── ofs_plat_afu_avalon.sv
       ├── axi
          ├── afu_axi512.sv
          ├── afu_axi.sv
          ├── ofs_plat_afu_axi512.sv
          ├── ofs_plat_afu_axi_from_ccip.sv
          └── ofs_plat_afu_axi.sv
       ├── host_chan_mmio.json
       ├── test_mmio_avalon0_from_ccip.txt
       ├── test_mmio_avalon1.txt
       ├── test_mmio_avalon2_512rw.txt
       ├── test_mmio_axi0_from_ccip.txt
       ├── test_mmio_axi1.txt
       └── test_mmio_axi2_512rw.txt
└── sw
    ├── main.c
    ├── Makefile

Execute afu_synth_setup as follows to create the synthesis environment for a host_chan_mmio AFU that fits the SoC Attach FIM previously constructed.

$ cd $OFS_PLATFORM_AFU_BBB/plat_if_tests/host_chan_mmio

$ mkdir -p $OFS_PLATFORM_AFU_BBB/plat_if_tests/host_chan_mmio/f2000x
$ cd $OFS_PLATFORM_AFU_BBB/plat_if_tests/host_chan_mmio/f2000x
$ afu_synth_setup -s $OFS_PLATFORM_AFU_BBB/plat_if_tests/host_chan_mmio/hw/rtl/test_mmio_axi1.txt hardware


Now, move into the synthesis environment ```hardware``` directory just created. From there, execute the ```afu_synth``` command. The successful completion of the command will produce the ```host_chan_mmio.gbs``` file under the synthesis environment directory, ```$OFS_PLATFORM_AFU_BBB/plat_if_tests/host_chan_mmio/f2000x/hardware```.

$ cd hardware
$ $OPAE_PLATFORM_ROOT/bin/afu_synth
Compiling ofs_top ofs_pr_afu
Generating host_chan_mmio.gbs
==================================
...
...
===========================================================================
 PR AFU compilation complete
 AFU gbs file is 'host_chan_mmio.gbs'
 Design meets timing
===========================================================================

The previous output indicates the successful compilation of the AFU and the compliance with the timing requirements. Analyze the reports generated in case the design does not meet timing. The timing reports are stored in the directory, $OFS_PLATFORM_AFU_BBB/plat_if_tests/host_chan_mmio/f2000x/hardware/build/syn/syn_top/output_files/timing_report.

Once the compilation finishes successfully, load the new host_chan_mmio.gbs bitstream file into the partial reconfiguration region of the target Intel IPU Platform F2000X-PL board. Keep in mind, that the loaded image is dynamic - this image is not stored in flash and if the card is power cycled, then the PR region is re-loaded with the default AFU.

To load the image, perform the following steps:

# On Development Host
$ cd $OFS_PLATFORM_AFU_BBB/plat_if_tests/host_chan_mmio/f2000x/base/hardware
# Copy FIM files to SoC
$ scp host_chan_mmio.gbs <user>@<SoC IP address>:</remote/directory>
# On SoC
$ cd </remote/directory>
$ fpgasupdate host_chan_mmio.gbs <F2000x SKU2 PCIe b:d.f> 
[2022-04-15 20:22:18.85] [WARNING ] Update starting. Please do not interrupt.
[2022-04-15 20:22:19.75] [INFO    ] 
Partial Reconfiguration OK
[2022-04-15 20:22:19.75] [INFO    ] Total time: 0:00:00.90

Set up your board to work with the newly loaded AFU.

# For the following example, the F2000x SKU2 PCIe b:d.f is assumed to be 15:00.0,
# however this may be different in your system

# Create the Virtual Functions (VFs):
$ pci_device 15:00.0 vf 3

# Verify:
$ lspci -s 15:00
15:00.0 Processing accelerators: Intel Corporation Device bcce (rev 01)
15:00.1 Processing accelerators: Intel Corporation Device bccf
15:00.2 Processing accelerators: Intel Corporation Device bccf
15:00.3 Processing accelerators: Intel Corporation Device bccf


# Bind VFs to VFIO driver. 

$  opae.io init -d 0000:15:00.1 
opae.io 0.2.5
Unbinding (0x8086,0xbccf) at 0000:15:00.1 from dfl-pci
Binding (0x8086,0xbccf) at 0000:15:00.1 to vfio-pci
iommu group for (0x8086,0xbccf) at 0000:15:00.1 is 52

$ opae.io init -d 0000:15:00.2
opae.io 0.2.5
Unbinding (0x8086,0xbccf) at 0000:15:00.2 from dfl-pci
Binding (0x8086,0xbccf) at 0000:15:00.2 to vfio-pci
iommu group for (0x8086,0xbccf) at 0000:15:00.2 is 53

$  opae.io init -d 0000:15:00.3
opae.io 0.2.5
Unbinding (0x8086,0xbccf) at 0000:15:00.3 from dfl-pci
Binding (0x8086,0xbccf) at 0000:15:00.3 to vfio-pci
iommu group for (0x8086,0xbccf) at 0000:15:00.3 is 54

# Verify the new AFU is loaded.  The host_chan_mmio AFU GUID is "76d7ae9c-f66b-461f-816a-5428bcebdbc5".

$ fpgainfo port
//****** PORT ******//
Object Id                        : 0xF100000
PCIe s:b:d.f                     : 0000:15:00.0
Vendor Id                        : 0x8086
Device Id                        : 0xBCCE
SubVendor Id                     : 0x8086
SubDevice Id                     : 0x17D4
Socket Id                        : 0x00
//****** PORT ******//
Object Id                        : 0x6015000000000000
PCIe s:b:d.f                     : 0000:15:00.3
Vendor Id                        : 0x8086
Device Id                        : 0xBCCF
SubVendor Id                     : 0x8086
SubDevice Id                     : 0x17D4
Socket Id                        : 0x00
Accelerator GUID                 : d15ab1ed-0000-0000-0210-000000000000
//****** PORT ******//
Object Id                        : 0x4015000000000000
PCIe s:b:d.f                     : 0000:15:00.2
Vendor Id                        : 0x8086
Device Id                        : 0xBCCF
SubVendor Id                     : 0x8086
SubDevice Id                     : 0x17D4
Socket Id                        : 0x00
Accelerator GUID                 : d15ab1ed-0000-0000-0110-000000000000
//****** PORT ******//
Object Id                        : 0x2015000000000000
PCIe s:b:d.f                     : 0000:15:00.1
Vendor Id                        : 0x8086
Device Id                        : 0xBCCF
SubVendor Id                     : 0x8086
SubDevice Id                     : 0x17D4
Socket Id                        : 0x00
Accelerator GUID                 : 76d7ae9c-f66b-461f-816a-5428bcebdbc5

Now, navigate to the directory of the host_chan_mmio AFU containing the host application's source code, $OFS_PLATFORM_AFU_BBB/plat_if_tests/host_chan_mmio/sw. Once there, compile the host_chan_mmio host application and execute it on the host server to excercise the functionality of the AFU.

Note: If OPAE SDK libraries were not installed in the default systems directories under /usr, you need to set the OPAE_LOC, LIBRARY_PATH, and LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variables to the custom locations where the OPAE SDK libraries were installed.

# On Development Host, move to the sw directory of the the host_chan_mmio AFU. This directory holds the source for the host application.
$ cd $OFS_PLATFORM_AFU_BBB/plat_if_tests/host_chan_mmio/sw
$ export OPAE_LOC=/usr
$ export LIBRARY_PATH=$OPAE_LOC/lib:$LIBRARY_PATH
$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$OPAE_LOC/lib64:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
$ make
# Copy application to SoC
$ scp host_chan_mmio <user>@<SoC IP address>:</remote/directory>
# On SoC, Run the application
$ cd </remote/directory>
$  ./host_chan_mmio
AFU ID:  76d7ae9cf66b461f 816a5428bcebdbc5
AFU MMIO interface: AXI Lite
AFU MMIO read bus width: 64 bits
512 bit MMIO write supported: yes
AFU pClk frequency: 470 MHz

Testing 32 bit MMIO reads:
  PASS - 4 tests

Testing 32 bit MMIO writes:
  PASS - 5 tests

Testing 64 bit MMIO writes:
  PASS - 5 tests

Testing 512 bit MMIO writes:
  PASS

3.3. Building and running the hello_world example AFU

The platform-independent examples AFU repository also provides some interesting example AFUs. In this section, you will compile and execute the PIM based hello_world AFU. The RTL of the hello_world AFU receives from the host application an address via memory mapped I/O (MMIO) write and generates a DMA write to the memory line at that address. The content written to memory is the string "Hello world!". The host application spins, waiting for the memory line to be updated. Once available, the software prints out the string.

The hello_world example AFU consists of the following files. The hw directory contains the RTL to implement the hardware functionality using CCIP, Avalon, and AXI interfaces. However, this guide will use the AXI version of the AFU to go through the compilation steps. The sw directory of the AFU contains the source code of the host application that communicates with the AFU hardware.

hello_world
├── hw
   └── rtl
       ├── avalon
          ├── hello_world_avalon.sv
          ├── ofs_plat_afu.sv
          └── sources.txt
       ├── axi
          ├── hello_world_axi.sv
          ├── ofs_plat_afu.sv
          └── sources.txt
       ├── ccip
          ├── hello_world_ccip.sv
          ├── ofs_plat_afu.sv
          └── sources.txt
       └── hello_world.json
├── README.md
└── sw
    ├── hello_world
    ├── hello_world.c
    ├── Makefile
    └── obj
        ├── afu_json_info.h
        └── hello_world.o

The following instructions can be used to compile other AFU samples accompanying this repository.

  1. If not done already, download and clone the examples AFU repository.
$ cd $OFS_BUILD_ROOT 
$ git clone https://github.com/OFS/examples-afu.git
  1. Compile the hello_word sample AFU.

    $ cd $OFS_BUILD_ROOT/examples-afu/tutorial/afu_types/01_pim_ifc/hello_world
    $ afu_synth_setup --source hw/rtl/axi/sources.txt build
    $ cd build
    $ ${OPAE_PLATFORM_ROOT}/bin/afu_synth
    Compiling ofs_top ofs_pr_afu
    Generating hello_world.gbs
    ==================================
    .
    .
    .
    ===========================================================================
     PR AFU compilation complete
     AFU gbs file is 'hello_world.gbs'
     Design meets timing
    ===========================================================================
    

  2. To test the AFU in actual hardware, load the hello_world.gbs to the Intel IPU Platform F2000X-PL card. For this step to be successful, the SoC Attach FIM must have already been loaded to the Intel IPU Platform F2000X-PL card following the steps described in Section 2 of this document.

$ cd $OFS_BUILD_ROOT/examples-afu/tutorial/afu_types/01_pim_ifc/hello_world/build/
# Copy FIM files to SoC
$ scp hello_world.gbs <user>@<SoC IP address>:</remote/directory>
# On SoC
$ cd </remote/directory>
$ fpgasupdate hello_world.gbs <F2000x SKU2 PCIe b:d.f>
[2022-04-15 20:22:18.85] [WARNING ] Update starting. Please do not interrupt.
[2022-04-15 20:22:19.75] [INFO    ] 
Partial Reconfiguration OK
[2022-04-15 20:22:19.75] [INFO    ] Total time: 0:00:00.90

Set up your Intel IPU Platform F2000X-PL board to work with the newly loaded hello_world.gbs file.

# For the following example, the Intel IPU Platform F2000X-PL PCIe b:d.f is assumed to be 15:00.0,
# however this may be different in your system

# Create the Virtual Functions (VFs):
$ pci_device 15:00.0 vf 3

# Verify:
$ lspci -s 15:00
15:00.0 Processing accelerators: Intel Corporation Device bcce (rev 01)
15:00.1 Processing accelerators: Intel Corporation Device bccf
15:00.2 Processing accelerators: Intel Corporation Device bccf
15:00.3 Processing accelerators: Intel Corporation Device bccf


# Bind VFs to VFIO driver.

$ opae.io init -d 0000:15:00.1
opae.io 0.2.5
Unbinding (0x8086,0xbccf) at 0000:15:00.1 from dfl-pci
Binding (0x8086,0xbccf) at 0000:15:00.1 to vfio-pci
iommu group for (0x8086,0xbccf) at 0000:15:00.1 is 52

$ opae.io init -d 0000:15:00.2
opae.io 0.2.5
Unbinding (0x8086,0xbccf) at 0000:15:00.2 from dfl-pci
Binding (0x8086,0xbccf) at 0000:15:00.2 to vfio-pci
iommu group for (0x8086,0xbccf) at 0000:15:00.2 is 53

$ opae.io init -d 0000:15:00.3
opae.io 0.2.5
Unbinding (0x8086,0xbccf) at 0000:15:00.3 from dfl-pci
Binding (0x8086,0xbccf) at 0000:15:00.3 to vfio-pci
iommu group for (0x8086,0xbccf) at 0000:15:00.3 is 54

# < Verify the new AFU is loaded.  The hello_world AFU GUID is "c6aa954a-9b91-4a37-abc1-1d9f0709dcc3".

$ fpgainfo port
//****** PORT ******//
Object Id                        : 0xF100000
PCIe s:b:d.f                     : 0000:15:00.0
Vendor Id                        : 0x8086
Device Id                        : 0xBCCE
SubVendor Id                     : 0x8086
SubDevice Id                     : 0x17D4
Socket Id                        : 0x00
//****** PORT ******//
Object Id                        : 0x6015000000000000
PCIe s:b:d.f                     : 0000:15:00.3
Vendor Id                        : 0x8086
Device Id                        : 0xBCCF
SubVendor Id                     : 0x8086
SubDevice Id                     : 0x17D4
Socket Id                        : 0x00
Accelerator GUID                 : d15ab1ed-0000-0000-0210-000000000000
//****** PORT ******//
Object Id                        : 0x4015000000000000
PCIe s:b:d.f                     : 0000:15:00.2
Vendor Id                        : 0x8086
Device Id                        : 0xBCCF
SubVendor Id                     : 0x8086
SubDevice Id                     : 0x17D4
Socket Id                        : 0x00
Accelerator GUID                 : d15ab1ed-0000-0000-0110-000000000000
//****** PORT ******//
Object Id                        : 0x2015000000000000
PCIe s:b:d.f                     : 0000:15:00.1
Vendor Id                        : 0x8086
Device Id                        : 0xBCCF
SubVendor Id                     : 0x8086
SubDevice Id                     : 0x17D4
Socket Id                        : 0x00
Accelerator GUID                 : c6aa954a-9b91-4a37-abc1-1d9f0709dcc3
  1. Compile and execute the host application of the hello_world AFU. You should see the application outputs the "Hello world!" message in the terminal.
# On Development Host, move to the sw directory of the hello_world AFU and build application
$ cd $OFS_BUILD_ROOT/examples-afu/tutorial/afu_types/01_pim_ifc/hello_world/sw
$ make
# Copy application to SoC
$ scp hello_world <user>@<SoC IP address>:</remote/directory>
# On SoC, Run the application
$ cd </remote/directory>
$ ./hello_world
Hello world!

3.4. Modify the AFU user clocks frequency

An OPAE compliant AFU specifies the frequency of the uclk_usr and uclk_usr_div2 clocks through the JSON file for AFU configuration located under the <afu_example>/hw/rtl directory of an AFU design. For instance, the AFU configuration file of the host_chan_mmio example is $OFS_PLATFORM_AFU_BBB/plat_if_tests/host_chan_mmio/hw/rtl/host_chan_mmio.json.

The AFU specifies the frequency for uClk_usr in its platform configuration file using the following key:value pairs:

  "clock-frequency-high": [<float-value>|”auto”|”auto-<float-value>”]
  "clock-frequency-low": [<float-value>|”auto”|”auto-<float-value>”]

These key:value tuples are used to configure the PLL of the target platform that provides the user clocks through the AFU clocks interface. In addition, the specified frequency affects the timing closure process on the user clocks during AFU compilation.

Setting the value field to a float number (e.g., 315.0 to specify 315 MHz) drives the AFU generation process to close timing within the bounds set by the low and high values and sets the AFU's JSON metadata to specify the user clock PLL frequency values.

The following example shows the JSON file of the host_chan_mmio to set the AFU uClk to 500 MHz and uClk_div2 to 250 MHz.

{
   "version": 1,
   "afu-image": {
      "power": 0,
      "clock-frequency-high": 500,
      "clock-frequency-low": 250,
      "afu-top-interface":
         {
            "class": "ofs_plat_afu"
         },
      "accelerator-clusters":
         [
            {
               "name": "host_chan_mmio",
               "total-contexts": 1,
               "accelerator-type-uuid": "76d7ae9c-f66b-461f-816a-5428bcebdbc5"
            }
         ]
   }
}

Save the changes to host_chan_mmio.json file, then execute the afu_synth_setup script to create a new copy of the AFU files with the modified user clock settigns.

$ mkdir -p $OFS_PLATFORM_AFU_BBB/plat_if_tests/host_chan_mmio/f2000x
$ cd $OFS_PLATFORM_AFU_BBB/plat_if_tests/host_chan_mmio/f2000x
$ afu_synth_setup -s $OFS_PLATFORM_AFU_BBB/plat_if_tests/host_chan_mmio/hw/rtl/test_mmio_axi1.txt build_f2000x_afu_clks

Copying build from /home/<user_area>/ofs-f2000x-pl/work_pr/pr_build_template/hw/lib/build...
Configuring Quartus build directory: build_F2000x_afu_clks/build
Loading platform database: /home/<user_area>/ofs-f2000x-pl/work_pr/pr_build_template/hw/lib/platform/platform_db/ofs_agilex_adp.json
Loading platform-params database: /usr/share/opae/platform/platform_db/platform_defaults.json
Loading AFU database: /usr/share/opae/platform/afu_top_ifc_db/ofs_plat_afu.json
Writing platform/platform_afu_top_config.vh
Writing platform/platform_if_addenda.qsf
Writing ../hw/afu_json_info.vh
Compile the host_chan_mmio AFU with the new frequency values.

$ cd build_f2000x_afu_clks
$ $OPAE_PLATFORM_ROOT/bin/afu_synth

During the compilation phase, you will observe the Timing Analyzer uses the specified user clock frequency values as the target to close timing.

AFU developers must ensure the AFU hardware design meets timing. The compilation of an AFU that fails timing shows a message similar to the following.

.
.
.

Wrote host_chan_mmio.gbs

===========================================================================
 PR AFU compilation complete
 AFU gbs file is 'host_chan_mmio.gbs'

  *** Design does not meet timing
  *** See build/syn/syn_top/output_files/timing_report

===========================================================================

The previous output indicates the location of the timing reports for the AFU designer to identify the failing paths and perform the necessary design changes. Next, is a listing of the timing report files from a host_chan_mmio AFU that fails to meet timing after modifying the user clock frequency values.

$ cd $OFS_PLATFORM_AFU_BBB/plat_if_tests/host_chan_mmio/f2000x/build_f2000x_afu_clks
$ ls build/syn/syn_top/output_files/timing_report

clocks.rpt  clocks.sta.fail.summary  clocks.sta.pass.summary

Warning: AFU developers must inform software developers of the maximum operating frequency (Fmax) of the user clocks to avoid any unexpected behavior of the accelerator and potentially of the overall system.

4. Simulating an AFU using ASE

The Application Simulation Environment (ASE) is a hardware/software co-simulation environment for your AFU. See diagram below illustrating ASE operation:

ASE uses the simulator Direct Programming Interface (DPI) to provide HW/SW connectivity. The PCIe connection to the AFU under testing is emulated with a transactional model.

The following list describes ASE operation:

  • Attempts to replicate the transactions that will be seen in real system.
  • Provides a memory model to AFU, so illegal memory accesses can be identified early.
  • Not a cache simulator.
  • Does not guarantee synthesizability or timing closure.
  • Does not model system latency.
  • No administrator privileges are needed to run ASE. All code is user level.

The remainder of this section is a tutorial providing the steps on how to run ASE with either Synopsys® VCS® or Siemens® QuestaSim® using an example AFU and the AFU build tree previously created in this guide.

4.1. Set Up Steps to Run ASE

In this section you will set up your server to support ASE by independently downloading and installing OPAE SDK and ASE. Then, set up the required environment variables.

4.1.1. Install OPAE SDK

Follow the instructions documented in the Getting Started Guide: Open FPGA Stack for Intel® Agilex® 7 FPGAs Targeting the Intel IPU Platform F2000X-PL, section 6.2 Installing the OPAE SDK On the Host to build and install the required OPAE SDK for the Intel IPU Platform F2000X-PL card.

The F2000x SKU2 card requires 2.5.0-3. Follow the instructions provided in the Getting Started Guide: Open FPGA Stack for Intel® Agilex® 7 FPGAs Targeting the Intel IPU Platform F2000X-PL, section 6.2 Installing the OPAE SDK On the Host. However, just make sure to check out the cloned repository to tag 2.5.0-3 and branch release/2.5.0.

$ git checkout tags/2.5.0-3 -b release/2.5.0

4.1.2 Install ASE Tools

ASE is an RTL simulator for OPAE-based AFUs. The simulator emulates both the OPAE SDK software user space API and the AFU RTL interface. The majority of the FIM as well as devices such as PCIe and local memory are emulated with simple functional models.

ASE must be installed separatedly from the OPAE SDK. However, the recommendation is to install it in the same target directory as OPAE SDK.

  1. If not done already, set the environment variables as described in section, Set Up AFU Development Environment.

  2. Clone the opae-sim repository.

    $ cd $OFS_BUILD_ROOT
    $ git clone https://github.com/OFS/opae-sim.git
    $ cd opae-sim
    $ git checkout tags/2.8.0-1 -b release/2.8.0 
    

  3. Create a build directory and build ASE to be installed under the default system directories along with OPAE SDK.

    $ mkdir build
    $ cd build
    $ cmake  -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr ..
    $ make
    

Optionally, if the desire is to install ASE binaries in a different location to the system's default, provide the path to CMAKE through the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX switch, as follows.

$ cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=<</some/arbitrary/path>> ..  

  1. Install ASE binaries and libraries under the system directory /usr.
    $ sudo make install  
    

4.1.3. Setup Required ASE Environment Variables

The values set to the following environment variables assume the OPAE SDK and ASE were installed in the default system directories below /usr. Setup these variables in the shell where ASE will be executed. You may wish to add these variables to the script you created to facilitate configuring your environment.

$ export OPAE_PLATFORM_ROOT=<path to PR build tree>
$ cd /usr/bin
$ export PATH=$PWD:$PATH
$ cd /usr/lib/python*/site-packages
$ export PYTHONPATH=$PWD
$ cd /usr/lib
$ export LIBRARY_PATH=$PWD
$ cd /usr/lib64
$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$PWD
$ cd $OFS_BUILD_ROOT/ofs-platform-afu-bbb
$ export OFS_PLATFORM_AFU_BBB=$PWD

  ## For VCS, set the following:

$ export VCS_HOME=<Set the path to VCS installation directory>
$ export PATH=$VCS_HOME/bin:$PATH

  ## For QuestaSIM, set the following:
$ export MTI_HOME=<path to Modelsim installation directory>
$ export PATH=$MTI_HOME/linux_x86_64/:$MTI_HOME/bin/:$PATH

4.2. Simulating the host_chan_mmio AFU

The $OFS_PLATFORM_AFU_BBB/plat_if_tests/host_chan_mmio is a simple example demonstrating both hardware and software access to an AFU. The host_chan_mmio example AFU consists of the following files:

host_chan_mmio
├── hw
│   └── rtl
│       ├── avalon
│       │   ├── afu_avalon512.sv
│       │   ├── afu_avalon.sv
│       │   ├── ofs_plat_afu_avalon512.sv
│       │   ├── ofs_plat_afu_avalon_from_ccip.sv
│       │   └── ofs_plat_afu_avalon.sv
│       ├── axi
│       │   ├── afu_axi512.sv
│       │   ├── afu_axi.sv
│       │   ├── ofs_plat_afu_axi512.sv
│       │   ├── ofs_plat_afu_axi_from_ccip.sv
│       │   └── ofs_plat_afu_axi.sv
│       ├── host_chan_mmio.json
│       ├── test_mmio_avalon0_from_ccip.txt
│       ├── test_mmio_avalon1.txt
│       ├── test_mmio_avalon2_512rw.txt
│       ├── test_mmio_axi0_from_ccip.txt
│       ├── test_mmio_axi1.txt
│       └── test_mmio_axi2_512rw.txt
└── sw
    ├── main.c
    ├── Makefile

This example AFU contains examples using both Avalon and AXI interface buses. This guide will use the AXI version of the host_chan_mmio AFU.

ASE uses client-server application architecture to deliver hardware/software co-simulation. You require one shell for the hardware based simulation and another shell where the software application is running. The hardware is started first with a simulation compilation and simulator startup script, once the simulator has loaded the design, it will wait until the software process starts. Once the software process starts, the simulator proceeds. Transaction logging and waveform capture is performed.

4.2.1 Set Up and Run the HW Simulation Process

You will run the afu_sim_setup script to create the scripts for running the ASE environment. The afu_sim_setup script has the following usage:

usage: afu_sim_setup [-h] -s SOURCES [-p PLATFORM] [-t {VCS,QUESTA,MODELSIM}]
                     [-f] [--ase-mode ASE_MODE] [--ase-verbose]
                     dst

Generate an ASE simulation environment for an AFU. An ASE environment is
instantiated from the OPAE installation and then configured for the specified
AFU. AFU source files are specified in a text file that is parsed by
rtl_src_config, which is also part of the OPAE base environment.

positional arguments:
  dst                   Target directory path (directory must not exist).

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -s SOURCES, --sources SOURCES
                        AFU source specification file that will be passed to
                        rtl_src_config. See "rtl_src_config --help" for the
                        file's syntax. rtl_src_config translates the source
                        list into either Quartus or RTL simulator syntax.
  -p PLATFORM, --platform PLATFORM
                        FPGA Platform to simulate.
  -t {VCS,QUESTA,MODELSIM}, --tool {VCS,QUESTA,MODELSIM}
                        Default simulator.
  -f, --force           Overwrite target directory if it exists.
  --ase-mode ASE_MODE   ASE execution mode (default, mode 3, exits on
                        completion). See ase.cfg in the target directory.
  --ase-verbose         When set, ASE prints each CCI-P transaction to the
                        command line. Transactions are always logged to
                        work/ccip_transactions.tsv, even when not set. This
                        switch sets ENABLE_CL_VIEW in ase.cfg.

Run afu_sim_setup to create the ASE simulation environment for the host_chan_mmio example AFU. The '-t VCS' option indicates to prepare the ASE simulation environment for Synopsys® VCS®.

$ mkdir -p $OFS_PLATFORM_AFU_BBB/plat_if_tests/host_chan_mmio/f2000x
$ cd $OFS_PLATFORM_AFU_BBB/plat_if_tests/host_chan_mmio/f2000x

$ afu_sim_setup -s $OFS_PLATFORM_AFU_BBB/plat_if_tests/host_chan_mmio/hw/rtl/test_mmio_axi1.txt -t VCS simulation

Copying ASE from /opae-sdk/install-opae-sdk/share/opae/ase...
#################################################################
#                                                               #
#             OPAE Intel(R) Xeon(R) + FPGA Library              #
#               AFU Simulation Environment (ASE)                #
#                                                               #
#################################################################

Tool Brand: VCS
Loading platform database: /ofs-f2000x-pl/work_pr/build_tree/hw/lib/platform/platform_db/ofs_agilex_adp.json
Loading platform-params database: /usr/share/opae/platform/platform_db/platform_defaults.json
Loading AFU database: /usr/share/opae/platform/afu_top_ifc_db/ofs_plat_afu.json
Writing rtl/platform_afu_top_config.vh
Writing rtl/platform_if_addenda.txt
Writing rtl/platform_if_includes.txt
Writing rtl/ase_platform_name.txt
Writing rtl/ase_platform_config.mk and rtl/ase_platform_config.cmake
ASE Platform: discrete (FPGA_PLATFORM_DISCRETE)

The afu_sim_setup creates the ASE scripts in the directory host_chan_mmio_sim where the afu_sim_setup script was run. Start the simulator as shown below:

$ cd simulation
$ make
$ make sim

This process launches the AFU hardware simulator. Before moving to the next section, pay attention to the simulator output highlighted in the image below.

The simulation artifacts are stored in host_chan_mmio/work and consist of:

log_ase_events.tsv
log_ofs_plat_host_chan.tsv 
log_ofs_plat_local_mem.tsv 
log_pf_vf_mux_A.tsv 
log_pf_vf_mux_B.tsv 

4.2.2 Set Up and Run the SW Process

Open an additional shell to build and run the host application that communicates with the actual AFU hardware. Set up the same environment variable you have set up in the shell you have been working on until this point.

Additionally, as indicated by the hardware simulator output that is currently executing in the "simulator shell", copy and paste the line "export ASE_WORKDIR=...", into the new "software shell". See the last image of the previous section.

$ export ASE_WORKDIR= <<as directed in HW simulation shell>>
Then, go to the sw directory of the host_chan_mmio AFU example to compile the host application.

$ cd $OFS_PLATFORM_AFU_BBB/plat_if_tests/host_chan_mmio/sw  
$ make

afu_json_mgr json-info --afu-json=../hw/rtl/host_chan_mmio.json --c-hdr=obj/afu_json_info.h
Writing obj/afu_json_info.h
cc -g -O2 -std=gnu99 -fstack-protector -fPIE -fPIC -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -Wformat -Wformat-security -I../../common/sw -I./obj -c main.c -o obj/main.o
cc -g -O2 -std=gnu99 -fstack-protector -fPIE -fPIC -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -Wformat -Wformat-security -I../../common/sw -I./obj -c test_host_chan_mmio.c -o obj/test_host_chan_mmio.o
cc -g -O2 -std=gnu99 -fstack-protector -fPIE -fPIC -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -Wformat -Wformat-security -I../../common/sw -I./obj -c ../../common/sw/connect.c -o obj/connect.o
cc -g -O2 -std=gnu99 -fstack-protector -fPIE -fPIC -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -Wformat -Wformat-security -I../../common/sw -I./obj -c ../../common/sw/csr_mgr.c -o obj/csr_mgr.o
cc -g -O2 -std=gnu99 -fstack-protector -fPIE -fPIC -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -Wformat -Wformat-security -I../../common/sw -I./obj -c ../../common/sw/hash32.c -o obj/hash32.o
cc -g -O2 -std=gnu99 -fstack-protector -fPIE -fPIC -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -Wformat -Wformat-security -I../../common/sw -I./obj -c ../../common/sw/test_data.c -o obj/test_data.o
cc -o host_chan_mmio obj/main.o obj/test_host_chan_mmio.o obj/connect.o obj/csr_mgr.o obj/hash32.o obj/test_data.o  -z noexecstack -z relro -z now -pie -luuid -lopae-c-ase

Now, launch the host application to exercise the AFU hardware running on the simulator shell. The next image shows the AFU hardware simulation process on the left side shell. The right hand shell shows the host application's output of a successful simulation.

$ with_ase ./host_chan_mmio
  [APP]  Initializing simulation session ...
Running in ASE mode
AFU ID:  76d7ae9cf66b461f 816a5428bcebdbc5
AFU MMIO interface: AXI Lite
AFU MMIO read bus width: 64 bits
512 bit MMIO write supported: yes
AFU pClk frequency: 470 MHz

Testing 32 bit MMIO reads:
  PASS - 4 tests

Testing 32 bit MMIO writes:
  PASS - 5 tests

Testing 64 bit MMIO writes:
  PASS - 5 tests

Testing 512 bit MMIO writes:
  PASS
  [APP]  Deinitializing simulation session
  [APP]         Took 1,003,771,568 nsec
  [APP]  Session ended



Finally, on the hardware simulation shell, you can view the wave forms by invoking the following command.

$ make wave

This brings up the Synopsys® VCS® simulator GUI and loads the simulation waveform files. Use the Hierarchy window to navigate to the afu instance located under, ase_top | ase_top_plat | ase_afu_main_pcie_ss | ase_afu_main_emul | afu_main | port_afu_instances | ofs_plat_afu | afu , as shown below.

Right click on the afu (afu) entry to display the drop-down menu. Then, click on Add to Waves | New Wave View to display the following waveforms window.



4.3 Simulating the hello_world AFU

In this section you will quickly simulate the PIM-based hello_world sample AFU accompanying the examples-afu repository.

  1. Set the environment variables as described in section 4.1. Set Up Steps to Run ASE.

  2. Prepare an RTL simulation environment for the AXI version of the hello_world AFU.

    Simulation with ASE requires two software processes, one to simulate the AFU RTL and the other to run the host software that excercises the AFU. To construct an RTL simulation environment under the directory simulation, execute the following.

    $ mkdir -p $OFS_BUILD_ROOT/examples-afu/tutorial/afu_types/01_pim_ifc/hello_world/f2000x
    $ cd $OFS_BUILD_ROOT/examples-afu/tutorial/afu_types/01_pim_ifc/hello_world/f2000x
    $ afu_sim_setup -s $OFS_BUILD_ROOT/examples-afu/tutorial/afu_types/01_pim_ifc/hello_world/hw/rtl/axi/sources.txt simulation
    
    
    Copying ASE from /usr/local/share/opae/ase...
    #################################################################
    #                                                               #
    #             OPAE Intel(R) Xeon(R) + FPGA Library              #
    #               AFU Simulation Environment (ASE)                #
    #                                                               #
    #################################################################
    
    Tool Brand: VCS
    Loading platform database: /home/<user_area>/ofs-f2000x-pl/work_pr/pr_build_template/hw/lib/platform/platform_db/ofs_agilex_adp.json
    Loading platform-params database: /usr/share/opae/platform/platform_db/platform_defaults.json
    Loading AFU database: /usr/share/opae/platform/afu_top_ifc_db/ofs_plat_afu.json
    Writing rtl/platform_afu_top_config.vh
    Writing rtl/platform_if_addenda.txt
    Writing rtl/platform_if_includes.txt
    Writing rtl/ase_platform_name.txt
    Writing rtl/ase_platform_config.mk and rtl/ase_platform_config.cmake
    ASE Platform: discrete (FPGA_PLATFORM_DISCRETE)
    

    The afu_sim_setup script constructs an ASE environment in the hello_world_sim subdirectory. If the command fails, confirm that the path to the afu_sim_setup is on your PATH environment variable (in the OPAE SDK bin directory) and that your Python version is at least 2.7.

  3. Build and execute the AFU RTL simulator.

    $ cd $OFS_BUILD_ROOT/examples-afu/tutorial/afu_types/01_pim_ifc/hello_world/f2000x/simulation
    $ make
    $ make sim  
    

    The previous commands will build and run the Synopsys® VCS® RTL simulator, which prints a message saying it is ready for simulation. The simulation process also prints a message instructing you to set the ASE_WORKDIR environment variable in a second shell.

  4. Open a second shell where you will build and execute the host software. In this new "software shell", set up the environment variables you have set up so far in the "hardware simulation" shell.

  5. Also, set the ASE_WORKDIR environment variable following the instructions given in the "hardware simulation" shell.

    $ export ASE_WORKDIR=$OFS_BUILD_ROOT/examples-afu/tutorial/afu_types/01_pim_ifc/hello_world/f2000x/simulation/work
    

  6. Then, move to the sw directory of the hello_world AFU sample to build the host software.

    $ cd $OFS_BUILD_ROOT/examples-afu/tutorial/afu_types/01_pim_ifc/hello_world/sw
    $ make      
    
  7. Run the hello_world host application to resume the work of the RTL simulation. The host software process and the RTL simulation execute in lockstep. If successful, you should see the Hello world! output.

    $ with_ase ./hello_world
    
      [APP]  Initializing simulation session ...
    Hello world!
      [APP]  Deinitializing simulation session
      [APP]         Took 43,978,424 nsec
      [APP]  Session ended
    

    The image below shows the simulation of the AFU hardware and the execution of the host application side-by-side.



  1. Finally, on the hardware simulation shell, you can view the wave forms by invoking the following command.

    make wave
    

    This brings up the DVE GUI and loads the simulation waveform files. Use the Hierarchy window to navigate to the afu instance located under, ase_top | ase_top_plat | ase_afu_main_pcie_ss | ase_afu_main_emul | afu_main | port_afu_instances | ofs_plat_afu | hello_afu, as shown below.

Right click on the hello_afu entry to display the drop-down menu. Then, click on Add to Waves | New Wave View to display the following waveforms window.



5. Adding Remote Signal Tap Logic Analyzer to debug the AFU

Remote Signal Tap is currently not supported in F2000x base FIM configuration.

6. How to modify the PF/VF MUX configuration

For information on how to modify the PF/VF mapping for your own design, refer to the FPGA Interface Manager Developer Guide: OFS for Intel® Agilex® SoC Attach FPGAs.

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