M2-ISA-R v2

This tool serves as a general-purpose instruction set architecture metamodel. A parser for CoreDSL and an architecture generator for the instruction set simulator ETISS are currently also provided.

Please note: M2-ISA-R is in heavy development, things might change and break without notice. Please report issues on GitHub for any problems you encounter.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.7+ with at least pip and venv

Installation (Usage with CoreDSL 2 and ETISS)

• Make a Python venv somewhere: python -m venv <path-to-venv>
• Activate said venv: source <path-to-venv>/bin/activate
• Install M2-ISA-R: pip install git+https://github.com/tum-ei-eda/M2-ISA-R@coredsl2

Development Setup

• Clone the repository, change into the cloned directory
• Make a Python venv: python -m venv venv
• Activate said venv: source venv/bin/activate
• Install M2-ISA-R for development: pip install -e .

Architecture

M2-ISA-R consists of 3 components, two of which are exchangeable for different needs:

Frontend -> Metamodel -> Backend

The frontend transforms a model specification into M2-ISA-R's internal architecture model. This model can then be transformed again to an output format, e.g. models for an ISS. This repo provides a CoreDSL frontend and an ETISS backend.

Usage

M2-ISA-R v2 currently ships three usable tools: Two parsers (for transforming CoreDSL 1.5 / 2 to a M2-ISA-R metamodel) and a writer (for generating ETISS architecture plugins). These are described seperately in their respective directories, TL;DR version:

• To parse a CoreDSL 2 description: coredsl2_parser path/to/input/<top_level>.core_desc
• To generate ETISS Architecture: etiss_writer -s path/to/input/gen_model/<top_level>.m2isarmodel

For parsers, see m2isar/frontends/coredsl or m2isar/frontends/coredsl2. For the ETISS architecture writer, see m2isar/backends/etiss.

Roadmap

• CoreDSL 2 support (WIP, RISC-V models are buildable)
• Formal metamodel description
• Support for extended CoreDSL 2 features:
  • Loops (WIP, for loops unimplemented)
  • Complex data types
  • Bit-wise aliasing
  • Spawn blocks
• Detection and evaluation of generation-time static expressions
• Better support for translation-time static expressions, see #5 and #6
• Full generation of ETISS architecture models:
  • Variable width instruction decoding
  • Exception handling
  • Privilege levels
  • Interrupts