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RISC-V Single Cycle RTL Design

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129 views10 pages

RISC-V Single Cycle RTL Design

Uploaded by

hatelachintu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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RISC-V Single Cycle

Processor RTL Design


Using Verilog

1. Introduction
This document provides an overview of a single-cycle RISC-V processor implementation based on
the provided architecture diagram. The processor supports a subset of the RISC-V instruction set
architecture (ISA).

RISC-V (Reduced Instruction Set Computer – V) is an open-source ISA that is designed to be


simple and flexible. It supports various extensions (e.g., integer, floating-point, atomic) and has
gained popularity for educational purposes, research, and even commercial applications.

2. Architecture Overview

The processor architecture consists of the following key components:

• Instruction Memory: Stores the instructions to be executed.


• Program Counter (PC): Keeps track of the address of the next instruction to be fetched.
• Instruction Memory: Holds the currently fetched instruction.
• Control Unit: Generates control signals to coordinate the operation of other components.
• Register File: Stores data and program counters.
• ALU: Performs arithmetic and logical operations.
• Data Memory: Stores data that can be accessed by the processor.
• Multiplexers: Select the appropriate data paths based on the control signals.

3. Instruction Set

The processor supports the following RISC-V instructions:

• Load-Store Instructions: Load data from memory to registers and store data from
registers to memory.
• Arithmetic and Logical Instructions: Perform arithmetic and logical operations on
register data.
• Branch Instructions: Branch to a different instruction based on a condition.
• Jump Instructions: Jump to a specific instruction address.
• Single-cycle operation of RISC-V instruction set.
• Datapath designed to support data transfers required by instructions.
• Controller causes correct transfers to happen.

4. Limitations

Due to the single-cycle design, the processor's performance is limited by the longest stage in the
pipeline. This can lead to performance degradation for instructions that require multiple clock
cycles, such as memory access and complex ALU operations.

**********

For a deeper understanding of RISC-V architecture and design principles, refer to the book 'Computer
Organization and Design RISC-V Edition: The Hardware/Software Interface, 2nd Edition' by David Patterson
and John Hennessy.
5. Simulation

• Full Operation

• Program Counter (PC):

The Program Counter holds the address of the current instruction being executed. After each
cycle, it increments to point to the next instruction unless altered by jump or branch instructions.

• Instruction Memory: This module stores the machine instructions of the program. The PC
fetches the current instruction from this memory. The fetched instruction is then decoded
to control the operation of the processor.
• Control Unit: The control unit generates signals to coordinate the flow of data within the
processor. It interprets the opcode of the fetched instruction and sets the control signals
to drive the ALU, memory access, and data routing in multiplexers.

• Register File: The register file contains 32 general-purpose registers (x0 to x31). It allows
reading two registers and writing one register simultaneously. The register at x0 is
hardwired to zero, as per RISC-V convention.
• ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit): The ALU performs arithmetic and logical operations, such as
addition, subtraction, AND, OR, and comparisons. The ALU's operations are determined by
control signals based on the instruction type (e.g., R-type, I-type).

• Data Memory: Data memory is used to perform load and store operations. It reads data
from memory on load instructions and writes data to memory on store instructions, based
on the address computed by the ALU.
6. RTL Synthesis Block Diagram
7. Future Work

To improve the processor's performance, future work could focus on implementing a pipelined
architecture, which can overlap the execution of multiple instructions. Additionally, adding more
complex instructions and support for floating-point operations could extend the processor's
capabilities.

8. Conclusion
This document provides a brief overview of a single-cycle RISC-V processor. The processor is a
good starting point for understanding the basic principles of processor design and can be used as
a foundation for more complex designs.

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