[Backend][BLIF] Automatic generation of blif files by Carmine50 · Pull Request #872 · EPFL-LAP/dynamatic

Carmine50 · 2026-04-24T14:32:01Z

The following PR introduces a BLIF Generator, which automatically generates BLIF files of dataflow units.

The BLIF generator is automatically called by the BLIF file manager when a blif file is not found in the blif library.

Please refer to the doc for more information about it

This PR also fixes bugs present in the HandshakeToSynth conversion pass, it adds new attributes in the hw flattening pass, and adds yosys in the dynamatic flow.

…hey belonged to

…e unit

Jiahui17 · 2026-04-29T14:47:21Z

I fill like it is quite redundant to store the path to abc and yosys inside the config class.

I think it makes more sense to configure the bianry location at compile time and maybe fall back to PATH

So we don’t need to use a variant differentiate the config between blif vs. verilog

…unYosys and runAcb functions

Jiahui17 · 2026-04-29T12:26:47Z

+  }
+
+private:
+  std::string rtlConfigPath; /// Absolute path to the JSON RTL config file.


why does this still need RTL config?

Jiahui17 · 2026-04-29T19:36:23Z

+  /// Parameters for Backend generation.
+  struct BackendParams {
+    std::string rtlConfigPath; /// Absolute path to the JSON RTL config.
+    std::string dynamaticRoot; /// Project root for $DYNAMATIC substitution.
+    std::string outputBaseDir; /// Base directory for per-module output.
+  };


They could be just the private members of the generator class itself

Jiahui17 · 2026-04-29T19:36:41Z

+
+namespace dynamatic {
+
+class BackendGenerator {


UnitRTLGenerator?

Jiahui17 · 2026-04-29T19:39:45Z

+
+namespace dynamatic {
+
+class BackendGenerator {


Usage example

Jiahui17 · 2026-04-29T19:40:55Z

+  const std::string &getModuleName() const { return moduleName; }
+  /// Verilog backend: returns the generated .v files.
+  /// BLIF backend: returns a single-element vector with the .blif file path.
+  const std::vector<std::string> &getOutputFiles() const { return outputFiles; }


It is not clear to me here if we should use one generator instance for generating many units or one generator instance per one unit?

Jiahui17 · 2026-04-29T20:09:55Z

+  std::filesystem::permissions(scriptPath,
+                               std::filesystem::perms::owner_exec |
+                                   std::filesystem::perms::owner_read |
+                                   std::filesystem::perms::owner_write,
+                               std::filesystem::perm_options::add);


why do you need this?

Jiahui17 · 2026-04-29T20:11:17Z

+  // Check if ABC executable is configured.
+#if !defined(DYNAMATIC_ABC_EXECUTABLE)
+  // If not configured, check that there is an "abc" executable in the system
+  // PATH.
+  if (system("which abc > /dev/null 2>&1") != 0) {
+    llvm::errs() << "ABC executable not found. Please install ABC or "
+                    "re-build Dynamatic with ABC enabled.\n";
+    return false;
+  }
+  abcExecutable = "abc";
+#else
+  abcExecutable = DYNAMATIC_ABC_EXECUTABLE;
+  if (!std::filesystem::exists(abcExecutable)) {
+    llvm::errs() << "ABC executable not found at configured path: "
+                 << abcExecutable << "\n";
+    return false;
+  }
+#endif


separate function

Jiahui17 · 2026-04-29T20:11:43Z

+  std::string yosysExecutable;
+  // Check if Yosys executable is configured.
+#if !defined(DYNAMATIC_YOSYS_EXECUTABLE)
+  // If not configured, check that there is a "yosys" executable in the system
+  // PATH.
+  if (system("which yosys > /dev/null 2>&1") != 0) {
+    llvm::errs() << "Yosys executable not found. Please install Yosys or "
+                    "re-build Dynamatic with Yosys enabled.\n";
+    return false;
+  }
+  yosysExecutable = "yosys";
+#else
+  yosysExecutable = DYNAMATIC_YOSYS_EXECUTABLE;
+  if (!std::filesystem::exists(yosysExecutable)) {
+    llvm::errs() << "Yosys executable not found at configured path: "
+                 << yosysExecutable << "\n";
+    return false;
+  }
+#endif


separate function in the anonymous namespace

Jiahui17 · 2026-04-29T20:12:40Z

+      if (Operation *defOp = outputVal.getDefiningOp()) {
+        defOp->setAttr("hw.module_name", modName);
+        defOp->setAttr("hw.port_name", portName);
+      }
+      ++outIdx;


I don't understand where are these attributes actually used

Jiahui17 · 2026-04-29T20:16:12Z

+  std::ifstream configFile(rtlConfigPath);
+  if (!configFile.is_open()) {
+    llvm::errs() << "BackendGenerator: cannot open config: " << rtlConfigPath
+                 << "\n";
+    return false;
+  }


why don't you use this?

dynamatic/include/dynamatic/Support/RTL/RTL.h

Lines 509 to 550 in ffd7cbc

/// Represents the content of one or more RTL configuration files; essentially a

/// list of RTL component descriptions along with a matching logic to select a

/// description (if any) that can concretize a specific component configuration.

class RTLConfiguration {

public:

/// Default constructor.

RTLConfiguration() = default;

/// Attempts to deserialize the JSON-formatted RTL configuration file at the

/// provided location and add all its component descriptions to the existing

/// list.

LogicalResult addComponentsFromJSON(StringRef filepath);

/// Determines whether any RTL component is compatible with the request.

bool hasMatchingComponent(const RTLRequest &request);

/// Tries to find an RTL component that is compatible with the request.

/// Returns a heap-allocated match to the first matching component (in

/// JSON-parsing-order) if one exists; otherwise returs nullptr.

RTLMatch *getMatchingComponent(const RTLRequest &request);

/// Finds all RTL components compatible with the request and pushes

/// corresponding heap-allocated matches to the vector (in

/// JSON-parsing-order).

void findMatchingComponents(const RTLRequest &request,

std::vector<RTLMatch *> &matches) const;

/// Determines whether the RTL configuration has any component with a timing

/// model compatible with the match object. Returns the first compatible model

/// (in component and model list order), if any exists.

const RTLComponent::Model *getModel(const RTLRequest &request) const;

RTLConfiguration(RTLConfiguration &&) noexcept = default;

RTLConfiguration &operator=(RTLConfiguration &&) noexcept = default;

private:

/// List of RTL component descriptions parsed from one or many RTL

/// configuration files.

std::vector<RTLComponent> components;

};

} // namespace dynamatic

Carmine50 and others added 27 commits April 23, 2026 12:27

Added yosys into compilation flow of dynamatic

dbb2e8b

Fixed bug in terminator ordering operations

f78eff5

Added extra attribute when flattening to record the original module t…

885654f

…hey belonged to

Fixed bug using dense set

9937989

Added BLIF Generator

cccfb4f

Added doc for blif generator

f74db1e

Added online blif generator

922b748

Integrated online generation in the blif file manager

b08ecef

Removed unused function

74ac113

Merge branch 'main' into feature/crizzi/automatic-blif-generation

543bf1c

Merge branch 'main' into feature/crizzi/automatic-blif-generation

bf9d691

Added parameters for RTL generation inside tablegen for each handshak…

219b3a7

…e unit

Fixed bug in terminator ordering operations

806869d

Updated BLIF generator to use the RTL generator

d87fc57

Added RTL generator

ecda7db

Added RTL generator

563fbe8

Updated BLIF File Manager with new params retrieval

cf67cd6

Updated BLIF File Manager with new params retrieval

ed7a46e

Merge branch 'main' into feature/crizzi/automatic-blif-generation

547ad97

Added enable yosys flag to unittest

5d62f28

Fixed format

de85461

Added unittest for BLIFFileManager

c304b88

Added more inputs to the mark pass

83dbd32

Added dynamatic root and RTL json file as inputs parameter

7d6bcfe

Changed input name formatting

85e585d

Replaced RTL and BLIF generator with a backend generator

f77a8e0

Fixed typo

001e738

Carmine50 added 2 commits April 29, 2026 19:02

Changed doc from BLIF generator to backend generator

f7de867

Fixed formatting issue

4582dd2

Carmine50 added 2 commits April 29, 2026 19:05

Fixed typo

c8ed4ca

Removed abc and yosys executable as inputs and directly used in the r…

5539676

…unYosys and runAcb functions

Jiahui17 reviewed Apr 29, 2026

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[Backend][BLIF] Automatic generation of blif files #872

[Backend][BLIF] Automatic generation of blif files #872
Carmine50 wants to merge 31 commits into
mainfrom
feature/crizzi/automatic-blif-generation

Carmine50 commented Apr 24, 2026

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Jiahui17 commented Apr 29, 2026

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	/// Represents the content of one or more RTL configuration files; essentially a
	/// list of RTL component descriptions along with a matching logic to select a
	/// description (if any) that can concretize a specific component configuration.
	class RTLConfiguration {
	public:
	/// Default constructor.
	RTLConfiguration() = default;

	/// Attempts to deserialize the JSON-formatted RTL configuration file at the
	/// provided location and add all its component descriptions to the existing
	/// list.
	LogicalResult addComponentsFromJSON(StringRef filepath);

	/// Determines whether any RTL component is compatible with the request.
	bool hasMatchingComponent(const RTLRequest &request);

	/// Tries to find an RTL component that is compatible with the request.
	/// Returns a heap-allocated match to the first matching component (in
	/// JSON-parsing-order) if one exists; otherwise returs nullptr.
	RTLMatch *getMatchingComponent(const RTLRequest &request);

	/// Finds all RTL components compatible with the request and pushes
	/// corresponding heap-allocated matches to the vector (in
	/// JSON-parsing-order).
	void findMatchingComponents(const RTLRequest &request,
	std::vector<RTLMatch *> &matches) const;

	/// Determines whether the RTL configuration has any component with a timing
	/// model compatible with the match object. Returns the first compatible model
	/// (in component and model list order), if any exists.
	const RTLComponent::Model *getModel(const RTLRequest &request) const;

	RTLConfiguration(RTLConfiguration &&) noexcept = default;
	RTLConfiguration &operator=(RTLConfiguration &&) noexcept = default;

	private:
	/// List of RTL component descriptions parsed from one or many RTL
	/// configuration files.
	std::vector<RTLComponent> components;
	};

	} // namespace dynamatic

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Carmine50 commented Apr 24, 2026

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