From: Sebastien Bourdeauducq Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2013 19:29:47 +0000 (+0100) Subject: README: update X-Git-Tag: 24jan2021_ls180~2099^2~660 X-Git-Url: https://git.libre-soc.org/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=c4d9734e539ebad7e90189586e6fb92ddea8ab70;p=litex.git README: update --- diff --git a/README b/README index 45c8e7d8..3fa4e217 100644 --- a/README +++ b/README @@ -1,25 +1,43 @@ Migen (Milkymist Generator) a Python toolbox for building complex digital hardware -Migen aims at automating further the VLSI design process. Migen makes it -possible to apply modern software concepts such as object-oriented -programming and metaprogramming to design hardware. This results in more -elegant and easily maintained designs and reduces the incidence of human -errors. Built on these principles, it also provides tools to build -synchronous designs more productively, integrate system-on-chips, design -dataflow systems, and more. Migen will become the foundation for the -next-generation Milkymist SoC. +Despite being faster than schematics entry, hardware design with Verilog and +VHDL remains tedious and inefficient for several reasons. The event-driven +model introduces issues and manual coding that are unnecessary for synchronous +circuits, which represent the lion's share of today's logic designs. Counter- +intuitive arithmetic rules result in steeper learning curves and provide a +fertile ground for subtle bugs in designs. Finally, support for procedural +generation of logic (metaprogramming) through "generate" statements is very +limited and restricts the ways code can be made generic, reused and organized. + +To address those issues, we have developed the Migen FHDL library that +replaces the event-driven paradigm with the notions of combinatorial and +synchronous statements, has arithmetic rules that make integers always behave +like mathematical integers, and most importantly allows the design's logic to +be constructed by a Python program. This last point enables hardware designers +to take advantage of the richness of the Python language - object oriented +programming, function parameters, generators, operator overloading, libraries, +etc. - to build well organized, reusable and elegant designs. + +Other Migen libraries are built on FHDL and provide various tools such as a +system-on-chip interconnect infrastructure, a dataflow programming system, a +more traditional high-level synthesizer that compiles Python routines into +state machines with datapaths, and a simulator that allows test benches to be +written in Python. + +Migen is the foundation of the next-generation Milkymist SoC. See the doc/ folder for a more complete description. Code repository: https://github.com/milkymist/migen -Experimental version of the Milkymist SoC based on Migen: +New Milkymist SoC based on Migen: https://github.com/milkymist/milkymist-ng -Migen is designed for Python 3.2. +Migen is designed for Python 3. Send questions, comments and patches to devel [AT] lists.milkymist.org +There is a lot of room for improvement in many areas, contributions welcome. We are also on IRC: #milkymist on the Freenode network. See LICENSE file for copyright and license info.