🚀 DRAM Simulation Tool for RTL

This tool aids in system-level hardware simulations, particularly for large chip designs (RTL models) that require co-simulation with modern off-chip DRAMs (e.g., LPDDR, DDR, HBM). It utilizes DRAMSys5.0 for the simulation of DRAM + CTRL models, setting up a co-simulation environment between RTL and DRAMSys5.0 effectively.

🚀 Getting Started

🔧 Prerequisites

• This tool leverages bender for dependency management and automatic generation of compilation scripts.
• Note: We currently do not offer an open-source simulation setup. Instead, we have utilized Questasim for simulation.
• For building DRAMSys, cmake version >= 3.28.1 is required.

🔨 Build DRAMSys Dynamic Linkable Library

To download, patch, and build the DRAMSys dynamic linkable libraries, run

make -j dramsys

After building, two key libraries will be available in dramsys_lib/DRAMSys/build/lib:

• libsystemc.so
• libDRAMSys_Simulator.so

🧪 (Optional) Test RTL-DRAMSys Co-simulation

From the root folder of this repository, use the command make all or make gui to run an RTL testbench that attempts to access DDR4-DIMM data.

📚 Using DRAMSys Dynamic Linkable Library for System-Level RTL+DRAMSys Co-simulation

Steps:

1. Include the following three SystemVerilog files from the src directory into your project. For example, you can add them to your Bender.yml source list:

   • src/sim_dram.sv
   • src/axi_dram_sim.sv
   • src/dram_sim_engine.sv

2. Instantiate only one dram_sim_engine in your design and set the parameter for your design's clk period in ns. It is recommended to place it in your top-level design.

3. Utilize the axi_dram_sim module as a standard SystemVerilog module with an AXI4 interface by:

   • Passing basic AXI interface parameters.
   • Specifying the DRAM model to simulate with the DRAMType parameter (defaults to DDR4).
   • Providing the base address of the DRAM model in your design.

4. For simulation in Modelsim, link Modelsim to the built libraries (libsystemc.so and libDRAMSys_Simulator.so) and specify the location of configuration files by passing the following arguments to your command:

   -sv_lib <library folder path>/libsystemc -sv_lib <library folder path>/libDRAMSys_Simulator +DRAMSYS_RES=<path to dramsys_lib/resources>

5. 💡 Now, you are ready to enjoy your DRAM simulation!

🎉 License

All hardware sources and tool scripts are licensed under the Solderpad Hardware License 0.51 (see LICENSE). DRAMSys5.0 is employed for DRAM simulations; please adhere to their license as well.