Assertion Synthesis

Golden Gate can synthesize assertions present in FIRRTL (implemented as stop statements) that would otherwise be lost in the FPGA synthesis flow. Rocket and BOOM include hundreds of such assertions which, when synthesized, can provide great insight into why the target may be failing.

Enabling Assertion Synthesis

To enable assertion synthesis prepend WithSynthAsserts Config to your PLATFORM_CONFIG. During compilation, Golden Gate will print the number of assertions it’s synthesized. In the target’s generated-src/ directory, you’ll find a *.asserts file with the definitions of all synthesized assertions. If assertion synthesis has been enabled, the synthesized_assertions_t bridge driver will be automatically instantiated.

Runtime Behavior

If an assertion is caught during simulation, the driver will print the assertion cause, the path to module instance in which it fired, a source locator, and the cycle on which the assertion fired. Simulation will then terminate.

An example of an assertion caught in a dual-core instance of BOOM is given below:

id: 1190, module: IssueSlot_4, path: FireSimNoNIC.tile_1.core.issue_units_0.slots_3]
Assertion failed
    at issue_slot.scala:214 assert (!slot_p1_poisoned)
    at cycle: 2142042185