From ece25a45d4b12f0436be238a13e622b58282036e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: whitequark <whitequark@whitequark.org>
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2020 07:03:16 +0000
Subject: cxxrtl: implement debug information outlining.

Aggressive wire localization and inlining is necessary for CXXRTL to
achieve high performance. However, that comes with a cost: reduced
debug information coverage. Previously, as a workaround, the `-Og`
option could have been used to guarantee complete coverage, at a cost
of a significant performance penalty.

This commit introduces debug information outlining. The main eval()
function is compiled with the user-specified optimization settings.
In tandem, an auxiliary debug_eval() function, compiled from the same
netlist, can be used to reconstruct the values of localized/inlined
signals on demand. To the extent that it is possible, debug_eval()
reuses the results of computations performed by eval(), only filling
in the missing values.

Benchmarking a representative design (Minerva SoC SRAM) shows that:
  * Switching from `-O4`/`-Og` to `-O6` reduces runtime by ~40%.
  * Switching from `-g1` to `-g2`, both used with `-O6`, increases
    compile time by ~25%.
  * Although `-g2` increases the resident size of generated modules,
    this has no effect on runtime.

Because the impact of `-g2` is minimal and the benefits of having
unconditional 100% debug information coverage (and the performance
improvement as well) are major, this commit removes `-Og` and changes
the defaults to `-O6 -g2`.

We'll have our cake and eat it too!
---
 backends/cxxrtl/cxxrtl_vcd.h | 32 +++++++++++++++++++++++++-------
 1 file changed, 25 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

(limited to 'backends/cxxrtl/cxxrtl_vcd.h')

diff --git a/backends/cxxrtl/cxxrtl_vcd.h b/backends/cxxrtl/cxxrtl_vcd.h
index dbeabbaf2..6ee98b428 100644
--- a/backends/cxxrtl/cxxrtl_vcd.h
+++ b/backends/cxxrtl/cxxrtl_vcd.h
@@ -28,10 +28,13 @@ class vcd_writer {
 		size_t ident;
 		size_t width;
 		chunk_t *curr;
-		size_t prev_off;
+		size_t cache_offset;
+		debug_outline *outline;
+		bool *outline_warm;
 	};
 
 	std::vector<std::string> current_scope;
+	std::map<debug_outline*, bool> outlines;
 	std::vector<variable> variables;
 	std::vector<chunk_t> cache;
 	std::map<chunk_t*, size_t> aliases;
@@ -112,16 +115,22 @@ class vcd_writer {
 		buffer += '\n';
 	}
 
-	const variable &register_variable(size_t width, chunk_t *curr, bool constant = false) {
+	void reset_outlines() {
+		for (auto &outline_it : outlines)
+			outline_it.second = /*warm=*/(outline_it.first == nullptr);
+	}
+
+	variable &register_variable(size_t width, chunk_t *curr, bool constant = false, debug_outline *outline = nullptr) {
 		if (aliases.count(curr)) {
 			return variables[aliases[curr]];
 		} else {
+			auto outline_it = outlines.emplace(outline, /*warm=*/(outline == nullptr)).first;
 			const size_t chunks = (width + (sizeof(chunk_t) * 8 - 1)) / (sizeof(chunk_t) * 8);
 			aliases[curr] = variables.size();
 			if (constant) {
-				variables.emplace_back(variable { variables.size(), width, curr, (size_t)-1 });
+				variables.emplace_back(variable { variables.size(), width, curr, (size_t)-1, outline_it->first, &outline_it->second });
 			} else {
-				variables.emplace_back(variable { variables.size(), width, curr, cache.size() });
+				variables.emplace_back(variable { variables.size(), width, curr, cache.size(), outline_it->first, &outline_it->second });
 				cache.insert(cache.end(), &curr[0], &curr[chunks]);
 			}
 			return variables.back();
@@ -129,13 +138,17 @@ class vcd_writer {
 	}
 
 	bool test_variable(const variable &var) {
-		if (var.prev_off == (size_t)-1)
+		if (var.cache_offset == (size_t)-1)
 			return false; // constant
+		if (!*var.outline_warm) {
+			var.outline->eval();
+			*var.outline_warm = true;
+		}
 		const size_t chunks = (var.width + (sizeof(chunk_t) * 8 - 1)) / (sizeof(chunk_t) * 8);
-		if (std::equal(&var.curr[0], &var.curr[chunks], &cache[var.prev_off])) {
+		if (std::equal(&var.curr[0], &var.curr[chunks], &cache[var.cache_offset])) {
 			return false;
 		} else {
-			std::copy(&var.curr[0], &var.curr[chunks], &cache[var.prev_off]);
+			std::copy(&var.curr[0], &var.curr[chunks], &cache[var.cache_offset]);
 			return true;
 		}
 	}
@@ -197,6 +210,10 @@ public:
 				emit_var(register_variable(item.width, item.curr),
 				         "wire", name, item.lsb_at, multipart);
 				break;
+			case debug_item::OUTLINE:
+				emit_var(register_variable(item.width, item.curr, /*constant=*/false, item.outline),
+				         "wire", name, item.lsb_at, multipart);
+				break;
 		}
 	}
 
@@ -228,6 +245,7 @@ public:
 			emit_scope({});
 			emit_enddefinitions();
 		}
+		reset_outlines();
 		emit_time(timestamp);
 		for (auto var : variables)
 			if (test_variable(var) || first_sample) {
-- 
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