CMU-SAFARI_SoftMC/README.md

## [DRAM Bender](https://github.com/CMU-SAFARI/DRAM-Bender) (a.k.a. SoftMC v2) supersedes SoftMC. We suggest that you use DRAM Bender instead of SoftMC.

# SoftMC v1.0

SoftMC is an experimental FPGA-based memory controller design that could be used to develop tests for DDR3 SODIMMs. SoftMC currently supports only the *Xilinx ML605* board. Soon, we will port SoftMC on other popularly used boards (e.g., *Xilinx VC709*). 

A paper describing SoftMC in detail is published at HPCA 2017 and is available here: 
>*Hasan Hassan, Nandita Vijaykumar, Samira Khan, Saugata Ghose, Kevin Chang, Gennady Pekhimenko, Donghyuk Lee, Oguz Ergin, and Onur Mutlu,*
**"[SoftMC: A Flexible and Practical Open-Source Infrastructure for Enabling Experimental DRAM Studies](https://people.inf.ethz.ch/omutlu/projects.htm)"**
*Proceedings of the 23rd International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA), Austin, TX, USA, February 2017.*

If you use or build on SoftMC, please cite that paper. 

We provide a) prebuilt binaries for quick installation and b) the source
code (both in Verilog and C++) that you could modify as you wish.

## Prerequisites:
- A Xilinx ML605 FPGA or other compatible board (We only tested ML605)
- A Linux Host Machine, (We have tested on Ubuntu 12.04/14.04)
- SoftMC uses an 8-lane PCIe interface to communicate with the Host Machine.
  So, you would also need to attach the board to the  8x/16x PCIe slot on the
motherboard of the Host Machine
- Single Rank DDR3 SODIMM attached to your FPGA board
- Xilinx ISE 14.6 (in case you want to build your own bitfile from the
  source)


## Installation Guide:

### 1) Installing the RIFFA driver:

You need to have [RIFFA](http://riffa.ucsd.edu) driver installed on your system to enable
the communication with the FPGA via the PCIe bus. Do not forget to attach
your FPGA board to a PCIe slot.

First switch to the directory of the source files of the RIFFA driver:

```$ cd sw/riffa_2.1/driver/linux```

Then run make to build the driver

```$ make```

Then install the driver to your system

```$ sudo make install```

### 2) Creating and Downloading the SoftMC bitfile to the FPGA:

**a) Quick Installation using Prebuilt Binaries**

You will find all that you need inside "prebuilt" folder
(including an executable for the Retention Time test).

- You need to download the bitfile into your FPGA using an appropriate tool
(Xilinx *Impact* does the job for ML605)
- After restarting the machine that the FPGA is connected to via PCIe, you
  should be able to run the Retention Time test application by typing to
command below:

```$ ./SoftMC_RetentionTime [Target Retention Time in milliseconds]```

**b) Installation from the Source Code**

Generating the SoftMC bitfile is straightforward:

- Use Xilinx ISE 14.6 to open the project, which is located located at *hw/boards/ML605/SoftMC.xise*. Ignore *missing files* pop-up windows by clicking the "Cancel" button. The missing files will be generated once the steps below are followed. 
- Double-click on *xilinx_mig* IPCore file to open Memory Interface Generator's (MIG) configuration window. Keep clicking the "Next" button until the windows closes. Doing this will generate the necessary files required by SoftMC in ```hw/boards/ML605/ipcore_dir/xilinx_mig```.
- Open a terminal and go to hw/boards/ML605. Run:

```$ sh apply_patches.sh```

This will apply modifications to the files generated by MIG.

- Go back to Xilinx ISE and click "Generate Programming File" and then click "Yes" on the dialogs
  that ask for IPCore to be compiled
  - If you get the following error during synthesis:
    `hw/boards/ML605/ipcore_dir/pcie_endpoint/source/gtx_wrapper_v6.v" Line
277: Instantiating <GTX_DRP_CHANALIGN_FIX_3752> from unknown module
<GTX_DRP_CHANALIGN_FIX_3752_V6>`
    1. Add `` `include "gtx_drp_chanalign_fix_3752_v6.v" `` before the module
declaration in `` "gtx_wrapper_v6.v" ``. Save the file.
    2. Comment-out the line that you have just added. Save the file again.
    3. Click Synthesize again

  The error occurs due to a bug in Xilinx ISE software. A workaround for it
is doing the steps that we listed above.

- After the operation completes successfully, you will find the generated
  bitfile in the project folder
- Then follow the steps in **a)**

*(Where necessary to simulate the SoftMC hardware, we provide a sample testbench module ("tb_softMC_top.v") that you can start with. To enable simulation, you will need to uncomment the SIM definition in "softMC.inc". This will change the I/O interface of the top module to exclude the PCIe signals and let you easily issue instructions to SoftMC)*

To compile the sample application (retention time test) that we provide:

```
$ cd sw/RetentionTest
$ make
$ ./SoftMC_RetentionTest [Target Retention Time in milliseconds]
``` 

## Known Issues:
- Multi Rank SODIMMs are currently not supported.
- An instruction sequence could consist maximum of 8192 instructions (see our HPCA 2017 paper for details).
- Motherboards with B75 Chipset seems to be incompatible with ML605's PCIe endpoint.

You are welcome to contribute to the project. If you find/solve any issues
or port SoftMC to a new FPGA board, please contact the people below.

## Contacts:
Hasan Hassan (hhasan [at] inf [dot] ethz [dot] ch)