Bluespec Compiler is a popular open-source hardware description and verification language. Apart from the standard features provided by the language, Bluespec Compiler also offers several useful extensions that enhance productivity and enable better hardware design.

In this blog post, we will explore some of the Bluespec Compiler-specific extensions that can be used to optimize and customize hardware designs.

1. Clock Gating

Clock Gating is a technique used to reduce power consumption in digital circuits by selectively stopping the clock signal to certain components when they are not in use. Bluespec Compiler provides specific keywords and constructs for clock gating, allowing designers to easily implement this power-saving technique. By using clock gating, designers can achieve significant power savings without compromising performance.

// Declare a gated clock signal
Clock gatedClock;
Reg#(Bool) enable;

// Define a gated clock domain
GatedClockDomain gatedClk (Clock clk, enable);

// Define a gated register
Reg#(UInt#(8)) gatedReg <- mkReg(genEnable);

The above code snippet demonstrates the usage of Bluespec Compiler’s clock gating extension. By declaring a gatedClock and using the GatedClockDomain construct, designers can create clock domains that can be gated using a control signal (enable in this case). The gatedReg is a register that is only updated when the enable signal is active, conserving power when the register is not needed.

2. Rule Prioritization

In Bluespec Compiler, designers can specify the priority of execution for different rules using the priority construct. Rule prioritization allows the designer to control the order in which rules are executed, enabling fine-grained control over the behavior of the hardware.

// Declare two rules with different priorities
rule highPriorityRule;
    // Rule body

rule lowPriorityRule
    // Rule body

// Specify the priority of the rules
always @(posedge clk) priority(highPriorityRule, 1);
always @(posedge clk) priority(lowPriorityRule, 0);

The above code snippet demonstrates how to use Bluespec Compiler’s rule prioritization extension. By using the priority keyword with a rule and assigning it a priority level, designers can determine the order in which rules are evaluated. In this example, the highPriorityRule will always be evaluated before the lowPriorityRule.

These are just a couple of the many extensions provided by Bluespec Compiler. These extensions enhance the capabilities of the language, allowing designers to create efficient and power-optimized hardware designs.

#Bluespec #CompilerExtensions