For general guidance on contributing to VTR see Submitting Code to VTR.
The actual machanics of submitting code are outlined below.
However they differ slightly depending on whether you are:
- an internal developer (i.e. you have commit access to the main VTR repository at
github.com/verilog-to-routing/vtr-verilog-to-routing
) or, - an (external developer) (i.e. no commit access).
The overall approach is similar, but we call out the differences below.
-
Setup a local repository on your development machine.
a. External Developers
-
Create a 'fork' of the VTR repository.
Usually this is done on GitHub, giving you a copy of the VTR repository (i.e.
github.com/<username>/vtr-verilog-to-routing
, where<username>
is your GitHub username) to which you have commit rights. See About forks in the GitHub documentation. -
Clone your 'fork' onto your local machine.
For example,
git clone [email protected]:<username>/vtr-verilog-to-routing.git
, where<username>
is your GitHub username.
b. Internal Developers
-
Clone the main VTR repository onto your local machine.
For example,
git clone [email protected]:verilog-to-routing/vtr-verilog-to-routing.git
.
-
-
Move into the cloned repository.
For example,
cd vtr-verilog-to-routing
. -
Create a branch, based off of
master
to work on.For example,
git checkout -b my_awesome_branch master
, wheremy_awesome_branch
is some helpful (and descriptive) name you give you're branch. Please try to pick descriptive branch names! -
Make your changes to the VTR code base.
-
Test your changes to ensure they work as intended and have not broken other features.
At the bare minimum it is recommended to run:
make #Rebuild the code ./run_reg_test.py vtr_reg_basic vtr_reg_strong #Run tests
See Running Tests for more details.
Also note that additional code formatting checks, and tests will be run when you open a Pull Request.
-
Commit your changes (i.e.
git add
followed bygit commit
).Please try to use good commit messages!
See Commit Messages and Structure for details.
-
Push the changes to GitHub.
For example,
git push origin my_awesome_branch
.a. External Developers
Your code changes will now exist in your branch (e.g.
my_awesome_branch
) within your fork (e.g.github.com/<username>/vtr-verilog-to-routing/tree/my_awesome_branch
, where<username>
is your GitHub username)b. Internal Developers
Your code changes will now exist in your branch (e.g.
my_awesome_branch
) within the main VTR repository (i.e.github.com/verilog-to-routing/vtr-verilog-to-routing/tree/my_awesome_branch
) -
Create a Pull Request (PR) to request your changes be merged into VTR.
-
Navigate to your branch on GitHub
a. External Developers
Navigate to your branch within your fork on GitHub (e.g.
https://github.com/<username/vtr-verilog-to-routing/tree/my_awesome_branch
, where<username>
is your GitHub username, andmy_awesome_branch
is your branch name).b. Internal Developers
Navigate to your branch on GitHub (e.g.
https://github.com/verilog-to-routing/vtr-verilog-to-routing/tree/my_awesome_branch
, wheremy_awesome_branch
is your branch name). -
Select the
New pull request
button.a. External Developers
If prompted, select
verilog-to-routing/vtr-verilog-to-routing
as the base repository.
-
Commit messages are an important part of understanding the code base and its history. It is therefore extremely important to provide the following information in the commit message:
- What is being changed?
- Why is this change occurring?
The diff of changes included with the commit provides the details of what is actually changed, so only a high-level description of what is being done is needed. However a code diff provides no insight into why the change is being made, so this extremely helpful context can only be encoded in the commit message.
The preferred convention in VTR is to structure commit messages as follows:
Header line: explain the commit in one line (use the imperative)
More detailed explanatory text. Explain the problem that this commit
is solving. Focus on why you are making this change as opposed to how
(the code explains that). Are there side effects or other unintuitive
consequences of this change? Here's the place to explain them.
If necessary. Wrap lines at some reasonable point (e.g. 74 characters,
or so) In some contexts, the header line is treated as the subject
of the commit and the rest of the text as the body. The blank line
separating the summary from the body is critical (unless you omit
the body entirely); various tools like `log`, `shortlog` and `rebase`
can get confused if you run the two together.
Further paragraphs come after blank lines.
- Bullet points are okay, too
- Typically a hyphen or asterisk is used for the bullet, preceded
by a single space, with blank lines in between, but conventions
vary here
You can also put issue tracker references at the bottom like this:
Fixes: #123
See also: #456, #789
(based off of here, and here).
Commit messages do not always need to be long, so use your judgement. More complex or involved changes with wider ranging implications likely deserve longer commit messages than fixing a simple typo.
It is often helpful to phrase the first line of a commit as an imperative/command written as if to tell the repository what to do (e.g. Update netlist data structure comments
, Add tests for feature XYZ
, Fix bug which ...
).
To provide quick context, some VTR developers also tag the first line with the main part of the code base effected, some common ones include:
vpr:
for the VPR place and route tool (vpr/
)flow:
VTR flow architectures, scripts, tests, ... (vtr_flow/
)archfpga:
for FPGA architecture library (libs/libarchfpga
)vtrutil:
for common VTR utilities (libs/libvtrutil
)doc:
Documentation (doc/
,*.md
, ...)infra:
Infrastructure (CI,.github/
, ...)
Generally, you should strive to keep commits atomic (i.e. they do one logical change to the code). This often means keeping commits small and focused in what they change. Of course, a large number of miniscule commits is also unhelpful (overwhelming and difficult to see the structure), and sometimes things can only be done in large changes -- so use your judgement. A reasonable rule of thumb is to try and ensure VTR will still compile after each commit.
For those familiar with history re-writing features in git (e.g. rebase) you can sometimes use these to clean-up your commit history after the fact.
However these should only be done on private branches, and never directly on master
.
Some parts of the VTR code base (e.g. VPR, libarchfpga, libvtrutil) have C/C++ code formatting requirements which are checked automatically by regression tests. If your code changes are not compliant with the formatting, you can run:
make format
from the root of the VTR source tree.
This will automatically reformat your code to be compliant with formatting requirements (this requires the clang-format
tool to be available on your system).
Python code must also be compliant with the formatting. To format Python code, you can run:
make format-py
from the root of the VTR source tree (this requires the black
tool to be available on your system).
For large scale reformatting (should only be performed by VTR maintainers) the script dev/autoformat.py
can be used to reformat the C/C++ code and commit it as 'VTR Robot', which keeps the revision history clearer and records metadata about reformatting commits (which allows git hyper-blame
to skip such commits). The --python
option can be used for large scale formatting of Python code.
Python files are automatically checked using pylint
to ensure they follow established Python conventions. You can run pylint
on the entire repository by running ./dev/pylint_check.py
. Certain files which were created before we adopted Python lint checking are grandfathered and are not checked. To check all files, provide the --check_grandfathered
argument. You can also manually check individual files using ./dev/pylint_check.py <path_to_file1> <path_to_file2> ...
.
VTR has a variety of tests which are used to check for correctness, performance and Quality of Result (QoR).
There are 4 main regression testing suites:
~1 minute serial
Goal: Fast functionality check
Feature Coverage: Low
Benchmarks: A few small and simple circuits
Architectures: A few simple architectures
This regression test is not suitable for evaluating QoR or performance. Its primary purpose is to make sure the various tools do not crash/fail in the basic VTR flow.
QoR checks in this regression test are primarily 'canary' checks to catch gross degradations in QoR. Occasionally, code changes can cause QoR failures (e.g. due to CAD noise -- particularly on small benchmarks); usually such failures are not a concern if the QoR differences are small.
~20 minutes serial, ~15 minutes with -j4
Goal: Broad functionality check
Feature Coverage: High
Benchmarks: A few small circuits, with some special benchmarks to exercise specific features
Architectures: A variety of architectures, including special architectures to exercise specific features
This regression test is not suitable for evaluating QoR or performance. Its primary purpose is try and achieve high functionality coverage.
QoR checks in this regression test are primarily 'canary' checks to catch gross degradations in QoR. Occasionally, changes can cause QoR failures (e.g. due to CAD noise -- particularly on small benchmarks); usually such failures are not a concern if the QoR differences are small.
Goal: Basic QoR and Performance evaluation
Feature Coverage: Medium
Architectures: A wider variety of architectures
Benchmarks: Small-medium size, diverse. All include:
-
VTR benchmarks
-
Additional benchmarks for each suite.
QoR checks in these regression suites are aimed at evaluating quality and run-time of the VTR flow. As a result any QoR failures are a concern and should be investigated and understood.
Note:
These suites comproise a single large suite,
vtr_reg_nightly
and should be run together to test nightly level regression. They are mostly similar in benchmark coverage interms of size and diversity however each suite tests some unique benchmarks in addition to the VTR benchmarks.suite wall-clock time Additional benchmarks vtr_reg_nightly_test1 ~4.5 hours with -j8
ISPD and MCNC20 vtr_reg_nightly_test2 ~6 hours with -j8
Titan23 and Titan other
vtr_reg_nightly_test3 ~5.5 hours with -j8
none
~42 hours with -j4
Goal: Full QoR and Performance evaluation.
Feature Coverage: Medium
Benchmarks: Medium-Large size, diverse. Includes:
- VTR benchmarks
- Titan23 benchmarks
Architectures: A wide variety of architectures
QoR checks in this regression are aimed at evaluating quality and run-time of the VTR flow. As a result any QoR failures are a concern and should be investigated and understood.
These can be run with run_reg_test.py
:
#From the VTR root directory
$ ./run_reg_test.py vtr_reg_basic
$ ./run_reg_test.py vtr_reg_strong
The nightly and weekly regressions require the Titan, ISPD, and Symbiflow benchmarks which can be integrated into your VTR tree with:
$ make get_titan_benchmarks
$ make get_ispd_benchmarks
$ make get_symbiflow_benchmarks
They can then be run using run_reg_test.py
:
$ ./run_reg_test.py vtr_reg_nightly_test1
$ ./run_reg_test.py vtr_reg_nightly_test2
$ ./run_reg_test.py vtr_reg_nightly_test3
$ ./run_reg_test.py vtr_reg_weekly
To speed-up things up, individual sub-tests can be run in parallel using the -j
option:
#Run up to 4 tests in parallel
$ ./run_reg_test.py vtr_reg_strong -j4
You can also run multiple regression tests together:
#Run both the basic and strong regression, with up to 4 tests in parallel
$ ./run_reg_test.py vtr_reg_basic vtr_reg_strong -j4
For the very large runs, you can submit your runs on a large cluster. A template of submission script to a Slurm-managed cluster can be found under vtr_flow/tasks/slurm/
For the following tests, you can use remote servers instead of running them locally. Once the changes are pushed into the remote repository, or a PR is created, the Test Workflow will be triggered. The following tests are included in the workflow:
- vtr_reg_nightly_test1-3
- vtr_reg_strong
- vtr_reg_yosys
- vtr_reg_yosys_parmys
- vtr_reg_yosys_odin
- odin_tech_strong
- odin_reg_strong
instructions on how to gather QoR results of CI runs can be found here.
In the case that you want to re-run the CI tests, due to certain issues such as infrastructure failure, go to the "Action" tab and find your workflow under Test Workflow. Select the test which you want to re-run. There is a re-run button on the top-right corner of the newly appeared window.
Attention If the previous run is not finished, you will not be able to re-run the CI tests. To circumvent this limitation, there are two options:
- Cancel the workflow. After a few minutes, you would be able to re-run the workflow
- Wait until the workflow finishes, then re-run the failed jobs
Odin has its own set of tests to verify the correctness of its synthesis results:
odin_reg_basic
: ~2 minutes serialodin_reg_strong
: ~6 minutes serial
These can be run with:
#From the VTR root directory
$ ./run_reg_test.py odin_reg_basic
$ ./run_reg_test.py odin_reg_strong
and should be used when making changes to Odin.
VTR also has a limited set of unit tests, which can be run with:
#From the VTR root directory
$ make && make test
VTR uses highly tuned and optimized algorithms and data structures. Changes which effect these can have significant impacts on the quality of VTR's design implementations (timing, area etc.) and VTR's run-time/memory usage. Such changes need to be evaluated carefully before they are pushed/merged to ensure no quality degradation occurs.
If you are unsure of what level of QoR evaluation is necessary for your changes, please ask a VTR developer for guidance.
The goal of performing a QoR evaluation is to measure precisely the impact of a set of code/architecture/benchmark changes on both the quality of VTR's design implementation (i.e. the result of VTR's optimizations), and on tool run-time and memory usage.
This process is made more challenging by the fact that many of VTR's optimization algorithms are based on heuristics (some of which depend on randomization). This means that VTR's implementation results are dependent upon:
- The initial conditions (e.g. input architecture & netlist, random number generator seed), and
- The precise optimization algorithms used.
The result is that a minor change to either of these can can make the measured QoR change. This effect can be viewed as an intrinsic 'noise' or 'variance' to any QoR measurement for a particular architecture/benchmark/algorithm combination.
There are typically two key methods used to measure the 'true' QoR:
-
Averaging metrics across multiple architectures and benchmark circuits.
-
Averaging metrics multiple runs of the same architecture and benchmark, but using different random number generator seeds
This is a further variance reduction technique, although it can be very CPU-time intensive. A typical example would be to sweep an entire benchmark set across 3 or 5 different seeds.
In practice any algorithm changes will likely cause improvements on some architecture/benchmark combinations, and degradations on others. As a result we primarily focus on the average behaviour of a change to evaluate its impact. However extreme outlier behaviour on particular circuits is also important, since it may indicate bugs or other unexpected behaviour.
The following are key QoR metrics which should be used to evaluate the impact of changes in VTR.
Implementation Quality Metrics:
Metric | Meaning | Sensitivity |
---|---|---|
num_pre_packed_blocks | Number of primitive netlist blocks (after tech. mapping, before packing) | Low |
num_post_packed_blocks | Number of Clustered Blocks (after packing) | Medium |
device_grid_tiles | FPGA size in grid tiles | Low-Medium |
min_chan_width | The minimum routable channel width | Medium* |
crit_path_routed_wirelength | The routed wirelength at the relaxed channel width | Medium |
critical_path_delay | The critical path delay at the relaxed channel width | Medium-High |
* By default, VPR attempts to find the minimum routable channel width; it then performs routing at a relaxed (e.g. 1.3x minimum) channel width. At minimum channel width routing congestion can distort the true timing/wirelength characteristics. Combined with the fact that most FPGA architectures are built with an abundance of routing, post-routing metrics are usually only evaluated at the relaxed channel width.
Run-time/Memory Usage Metrics:
Metric | Meaning | Sensitivity |
---|---|---|
vtr_flow_elapsed_time | Wall-clock time to complete the VTR flow | Low |
pack_time | Wall-clock time VPR spent during packing | Low |
place_time | Wall-clock time VPR spent during placement | Low |
min_chan_width_route_time | Wall-clock time VPR spent during routing at the minimum routable channel width | High* |
crit_path_route_time | Wall-clock time VPR spent during routing at the relaxed channel width | Low |
max_vpr_mem | Maximum memory used by VPR (in kilobytes) | Low |
* Note that the minimum channel width route time is chaotic and can be highly variable (e.g. 10x variation is not unusual). Minimum channel width routing performs a binary search to find the minimum channel width. Since route time is highly dependent on congestion, run-time is highly dependent on the precise channel widths searched (which may change due to perturbations).
In practice you will likely want to consider additional and more detailed metrics, particularly those directly related to the changes you are making.
For example, if your change related to hold-time optimization you would want to include hold-time related metrics such as hold_TNS
(hold total negative slack) and hold_WNS
(hold worst negative slack).
If your change related to packing, you would want to report additional packing-related metrics, such as the number of clusters formed by each block type (e.g. numbers of CLBs, RAMs, DSPs, IOs).
An important factor in performing any QoR evaluation is the benchmark set selected. In order to draw reasonably general conclusions about the impact of a change we desire two characteristics of the benchmark set:
-
It includes a large number of benchmarks which are representative of the application domains of interest.
This ensures we don't over-tune to a specific benchmark or application domain.
-
It should include benchmarks of large sizes.
This ensures we can optimize and scale to large problem spaces.
In practice (for various reasons) satisfying both of these goals simultaneously is challenging. The key goal here is to ensure the benchmark set is not unreasonably biased in some manner (e.g. benchmarks which are too small, benchmarks too skewed to a particular application domain).
Accurately and fairly measuring the run-time of computer programs is challenging in practice. A variety of factors effect run-time including:
- Operating System
- System load (e.g. other programs running)
- Variance in hardware performance (e.g. different CPUs on different machines, CPU frequency scaling)
To make reasonably 'fair' run-time comparisons it is important to isolate the change as much as possible from other factors. This involves keeping as much of the experimental environment identical as possible including:
- Target benchmarks
- Target architecture
- Code base (e.g. VTR revision)
- CAD parameters
- Computer system (e.g. CPU model, CPU frequency/power scaling, OS version)
- Compiler version
The first step is to collect QoR metrics on your selected benchmark set.
You need at least two sets of QoR measurements:
- The baseline QoR (i.e. unmodified VTR).
- The modified QoR (i.e. VTR with your changes).
The following tests can be run locally by running the given commands on the local machine. In addition, since CI tests are run whenever changes are pushed to the remote repository, one can use the CI test results to measure the impact of his/her changes. The instructions to gather CI tests' results are here.
Note that it is important to generate both sets of QoR measurements on the same computing infrastructure to ensure a fair run-time comparison.
The following examples show how a single set of QoR measurements can be produced using the VTR flow infrastructure.
The VTR benchmarks are a group of benchmark circuits distributed with the VTR project. The are provided as synthesizable verilog and can be re-mapped to VTR supported architectures. They consist mostly of small to medium sized circuits from a mix of application domains. They are used primarily to evaluate the VTR's optimization quality in an architecture exploration/evaluation setting (e.g. determining minimum channel widths).
A typical approach to evaluating an algorithm change would be to run vtr_reg_qor_chain
task from the nightly regression test:
#From the VTR root
$ cd vtr_flow/tasks
#Run the VTR benchmarks
$ ../scripts/run_vtr_task.py regression_tests/vtr_reg_nightly_test3/vtr_reg_qor_chain
#Several hours later... they complete
#Parse the results
$ ../scripts/python_libs/vtr/parse_vtr_task.py regression_tests/vtr_reg_nightly_test3/vtr_reg_qor_chain
#The run directory should now contain a summary parse_results.txt file
$ head -5 vtr_reg_nightly_test3/vtr_reg_qor_chain/latest/parse_results.txt
arch circuit script_params vpr_revision vpr_status error num_pre_packed_nets num_pre_packed_blocks num_post_packed_nets num_post_packed_blocks device_width device_height num_clb num_io num_outputs num_memoriesnum_mult placed_wirelength_est placed_CPD_est placed_setup_TNS_est placed_setup_WNS_est min_chan_width routed_wirelength min_chan_width_route_success_iteration crit_path_routed_wirelength crit_path_route_success_iteration critical_path_delay setup_TNS setup_WNS hold_TNS hold_WNS logic_block_area_total logic_block_area_used min_chan_width_routing_area_total min_chan_width_routing_area_per_tile crit_path_routing_area_total crit_path_routing_area_per_tile odin_synth_time abc_synth_time abc_cec_time abc_sec_time ace_time pack_time place_time min_chan_width_route_time crit_path_route_time vtr_flow_elapsed_time max_vpr_mem max_odin_mem max_abc_mem
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml bgm.v common 9f591f6-dirty success 26431 24575 14738 2258 53 53 1958 257 32 0 11 871090 18.5121 -13652.6 -18.5121 84 328781 32 297718 18 20.4406 -15027.8 -20.4406 0 0 1.70873e+08 1.09883e+08 1.63166e+07 5595.54 2.07456e+07 7114.41 11.16 1.03 -1 -1 -1 141.53 108.26 142.42 15.63 652.17 1329712 528868 146796
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml blob_merge.v common 9f591f6-dirty success 14163 11407 3445 700 30 30 564 36 100 0 0 113369 13.4111 -2338.12 -13.4111 64 80075 18 75615 23 15.3479 -2659.17 -15.3479 0 0 4.8774e+07 3.03962e+07 3.87092e+06 4301.02 4.83441e+06 5371.56 0.46 0.17 -1 -1 -1 67.89 11.30 47.60 3.48 198.58 307756 48148 58104
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml boundtop.v common 9f591f6-dirty success 1071 1141 595 389 13 13 55 142 192 0 0 5360 3.2524 -466.039 -3.2524 34 4534 15 3767 12 3.96224 -559.389 -3.96224 0 0 6.63067e+06 2.96417e+06 353000. 2088.76 434699. 2572.18 0.29 0.11 -1 -1 -1 2.55 0.82 2.10 0.15 7.24 87552 38484 37384
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml ch_intrinsics.v common 9f591f6-dirty success 363 493 270 247 10 10 17 99 130 1 0 1792 1.86527 -194.602 -1.86527 46 1562 13 1438 20 2.4542 -226.033 -2.4542 0 0 3.92691e+06 1.4642e+06 259806. 2598.06 333135. 3331.35 0.03 0.01 -1 -1 -1 0.46 0.31 0.94 0.09 2.59 62684 8672 32940
The Titan benchmarks are a group of large benchmark circuits from a wide range of applications, which are compatible with the VTR project. The are typically used as post-technology mapped netlists which have been pre-synthesized with Quartus. They are substantially larger and more realistic than the VTR benchmarks, but can only target specifically compatible architectures. They are used primarily to evaluate the optimization quality and scalability of VTR's CAD algorithms while targeting a fixed architecture (e.g. at a fixed channel width).
A typical approach to evaluating an algorithm change would be to run titan_quick_qor
task from the nightly regression test:
#From the VTR root
#Download and integrate the Titan benchmarks into the VTR source tree
$ make get_titan_benchmarks
#Move to the task directory
$ cd vtr_flow/tasks
#Run the VTR benchmarks
$ ../scripts/run_vtr_task.py regression_tests/vtr_reg_nightly_test2/titan_quick_qor
#Several days later... they complete
#Parse the results
$ ../scripts/python_libs/vtr/parse_vtr_task.py regression_tests/vtr_reg_nightly_test2/titan_quick_qor
#The run directory should now contain a summary parse_results.txt file
$ head -5 vtr_reg_nightly_test2/titan_quick_qor/latest/parse_results.txt
arch circuit vpr_revision vpr_status error num_pre_packed_nets num_pre_packed_blocks num_post_packed_nets num_post_packed_blocks device_width device_height num_clb num_io num_outputs num_memoriesnum_mult placed_wirelength_est placed_CPD_est placed_setup_TNS_est placed_setup_WNS_est routed_wirelength crit_path_route_success_iteration logic_block_area_total logic_block_area_used routing_area_total routing_area_per_tile critical_path_delay setup_TNS setup_WNS hold_TNS hold_WNS pack_time place_time crit_path_route_time max_vpr_mem max_odin_mem max_abc_mem
stratixiv_arch.timing.xml neuron_stratixiv_arch_timing.blif 0208312 success 119888 86875 51408 3370 128 95 -1 42 35 -1 -1 3985635 8.70971 -234032 -8.70971 1086419 20 0 0 2.66512e+08 21917.1 9.64877 -262034 -9.64877 0 0 127.92 218.48 259.96 5133800 -1 -1
stratixiv_arch.timing.xml sparcT1_core_stratixiv_arch_timing.blif 0208312 success 92813 91974 54564 4170 77 57 -1 173 137 -1 -1 3213593 7.87734 -534295 -7.87734 1527941 43 0 0 9.64428e+07 21973.8 9.06977 -625483 -9.06977 0 0 327.38 338.65 364.46 3690032 -1 -1
stratixiv_arch.timing.xml stereo_vision_stratixiv_arch_timing.blif 0208312 success 127088 94088 62912 3776 128 95 -1 326 681 -1 -1 4875541 8.77339 -166097 -8.77339 998408 16 0 0 2.66512e+08 21917.1 9.36528 -187552 -9.36528 0 0 110.03 214.16 189.83 5048580 -1 -1
stratixiv_arch.timing.xml cholesky_mc_stratixiv_arch_timing.blif 0208312 success 140214 108592 67410 5444 121 90 -1 111 151 -1 -1 5221059 8.16972 -454610 -8.16972 1518597 15 0 0 2.38657e+08 21915.3 9.34704 -531231 -9.34704 0 0 211.12 364.32 490.24 6356252 -1 -1
The Koios benchmarks are a group of Deep Learning benchmark circuits distributed with the VTR project. The are provided as synthesizable verilog and can be re-mapped to VTR supported architectures. They consist mostly of medium to large sized circuits from Deep Learning (DL). They can be used for FPGA architecture exploration for DL and also for tuning CAD tools.
A typical approach to evaluating an algorithm change would be to run koios
(or koios_no_complex_dsp
) task from the nightly regression test (vtr_reg_nightly_test4) and the koios
(or koios_no_complex_dsp
) task from the weekly regression test (vtr_reg_weekly). The nightly test contains smaller benchmarks, whereas the large designs are in the weekly regression test. To measure QoR for the entire benchmark suite, both nightly and weekly tests should be run and the results should be concatenated.
The koios
regression task runs these benchmarks with complex_dsp functionality enabled, whereas koios_no_complex_dsp
regression task runs these benchmarks without complex_dsp functionality. Normally, only the koios
tasks should be enough for QoR.
The following steps show a sequence of commands to run the koios
tasks on the Koios benchmarks from both nightly and weekly regressions:
#From the VTR root
$ cd vtr_flow/tasks
#Run the VTR benchmarks
$ ../scripts/run_vtr_task.py regression_tests/vtr_reg_nightly_test4/koios &
$ ../scripts/run_vtr_task.py regression_tests/vtr_reg_weekly/koios &
#Several hours later... they complete
#Parse the results
$ ../scripts/python_libs/vtr/parse_vtr_task.py regression_tests/vtr_reg_nightly_test4/koios
$ ../scripts/python_libs/vtr/parse_vtr_task.py regression_tests/vtr_reg_weekly/koios
#The run directory should now contain a summary parse_results.txt file
$ head -5 vtr_reg_nightly_test4/koios/<latest_run_dir>/parse_results.txt
arch circuit script_params vtr_flow_elapsed_time error odin_synth_time max_odin_mem abc_depth abc_synth_time abc_cec_time abc_sec_time max_abc_mem ace_time max_ace_mem num_clb num_io num_memories num_mult vpr_status vpr_revision vpr_build_info vpr_compiler vpr_compiled hostname rundir max_vpr_mem num_primary_inputs num_primary_outputs num_pre_packed_nets num_pre_packed_blocks num_netlist_clocks num_post_packed_nets num_post_packed_blocks device_width device_height device_grid_tiles device_limiting_resources device_name pack_time placed_wirelength_est place_time place_quench_time placed_CPD_est placed_setup_TNS_est placed_setup_WNS_est placed_geomean_nonvirtual_intradomain_critical_path_delay_est place_delay_matrix_lookup_time place_quench_timing_analysis_time place_quench_sta_time place_total_timing_analysis_time place_total_sta_time min_chan_width routed_wirelength min_chan_width_route_success_iteration logic_block_area_total logic_block_area_used min_chan_width_routing_area_total min_chan_width_routing_area_per_tile min_chan_width_route_time min_chan_width_total_timing_analysis_time min_chan_width_total_sta_time crit_path_routed_wirelength crit_path_route_success_iteration crit_path_total_nets_routed crit_path_total_connections_routed crit_path_total_heap_pushes crit_path_total_heap_pops critical_path_delay geomean_nonvirtual_intradomain_critical_path_delay setup_TNS setup_WNS hold_TNS hold_WNS crit_path_routing_area_total crit_path_routing_area_per_tile router_lookahead_computation_time crit_path_route_time crit_path_total_timing_analysis_time crit_path_total_sta_time
k6FracN10LB_mem20K_complexDSP_customSB_22nm.xml tpu_like.small.v common 2871.10 9.36 235096 5 619.21 -1 -1 159760 -1 -1 1119 355 14 -1 success v8.0.0-4161-g8f4b3e9ca release IPO VTR_ASSERT_LEVEL=2 GNU 7.5.0 on Linux-4.15.0-124-generic x86_64 2021-05-28T23:09:34 jupiter0 /export/aman/vtr_aman/vtr-verilog-to-routing/vtr_flow/tasks 2568860 355 289 50215 41827 2 23224 2053 136 136 18496 dsp_top auto 1233.72 457725 91.70 0.38 7.24742 -105267 -7.24742 2.59789 14.13 0.101267 0.0738583 24.91 18.6865 -1 561916 17 5.92627e+08 1.03195e+08 4.09037e+08 22114.9 16.37 32.3744 25.1979 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1
k6FracN10LB_mem20K_complexDSP_customSB_22nm.xml dla_like.small.v common 7527.41 42.24 729876 5 3941.31 -1 -1 630244 -1 -1 5545 194 828 -1 success v8.0.0-4161-g8f4b3e9ca release IPO VTR_ASSERT_LEVEL=2 GNU 7.5.0 on Linux-4.15.0-124-generic x86_64 2021-05-28T23:09:34 jupiter0 /export/aman/vtr_aman/vtr-verilog-to-routing/vtr_flow/tasks 4409476 194 13 217044 174718 1 91037 6708 164 164 26896 memory auto 1604.22 969627 663.41 2.84 5.61569 -424718 -5.61569 5.61569 21.49 0.584073 0.385993 104.796 73.1698 -1 1450542 14 8.6211e+08 3.01197e+08 5.93540e+08 22068.0 53.97 132.203 96.049 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1
k6FracN10LB_mem20K_complexDSP_customSB_22nm.xml bnn.v common 2028.52 40.37 577472 3 240.94 -1 -1 513656 -1 -1 5695 260 0 -1 success v8.0.0-4161-g8f4b3e9ca release IPO VTR_ASSERT_LEVEL=2 GNU 7.5.0 on Linux-4.15.0-124-generic x86_64 2021-05-28T23:09:34 jupiter0 /export/aman/vtr_aman/vtr-verilog-to-routing/vtr_flow/tasks 2195980 260 122 231647 179602 1 86181 6140 83 83 6889 clb auto 613.32 940951 503.35 2.87 6.4402 -131403 -6.4402 6.4402 5.41 0.753268 0.564332 85.331 60.8639 -1 1224690 16 2.13666e+08 1.74902e+08 1.51359e+08 21971.1 50.49 114.382 84.8538 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1
k6FracN10LB_mem20K_complexDSP_customSB_22nm.xml attention_layer.v common 1330.99 11.83 1095592 7 59.16 -1 -1 560612 -1 -1 1248 1058 161 -1 success v8.0.0-4161-g8f4b3e9ca release IPO VTR_ASSERT_LEVEL=2 GNU 7.5.0 on Linux-4.15.0-124-generic x86_64 2021-05-28T23:09:34 jupiter0 /export/aman/vtr_aman/vtr-verilog-to-routing/vtr_flow/tasks 1180420 1058 16 47407 39134 1 26605 2588 86 86 7396 dsp_top auto 728.70 234151 118.11 0.71 5.89837 -78343.6 -5.89837 5.89837 6.64 0.181478 0.146942 31.9659 24.5807 -1 366899 17 2.32446e+08 8.36361e+07 1.62201e+08 21930.9 16.25 40.6352 32.1556 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1
$ head -5 vtr_reg_weekly/koios/<latest_run_dir>/parse_results.txt
arch circuit script_params vtr_flow_elapsed_time error odin_synth_time max_odin_mem abc_depth abc_synth_time abc_cec_time abc_sec_time max_abc_mem ace_time max_ace_mem num_clb num_io num_memories num_mult vpr_status vpr_revision vpr_build_info vpr_compiler vpr_compiled hostname rundir max_vpr_mem num_primary_inputs num_primary_outputs num_pre_packed_nets num_pre_packed_blocks num_netlist_clocks num_post_packed_nets num_post_packed_blocks device_width device_height device_grid_tiles device_limiting_resources device_name pack_time placed_wirelength_est place_time place_quench_time placed_CPD_est placed_setup_TNS_est placed_setup_WNS_est placed_geomean_nonvirtual_intradomain_critical_path_delay_est place_delay_matrix_lookup_time place_quench_timing_analysis_time place_quench_sta_time place_total_timing_analysis_time place_total_sta_time min_chan_width routed_wirelength min_chan_width_route_success_iteration logic_block_area_total logic_block_area_used min_chan_width_routing_area_total min_chan_width_routing_area_per_tile min_chan_width_route_time min_chan_width_total_timing_analysis_time min_chan_width_total_sta_time crit_path_routed_wirelength crit_path_route_success_iteration crit_path_total_nets_routed crit_path_total_connections_routed crit_path_total_heap_pushes crit_path_total_heap_pops critical_path_delay geomean_nonvirtual_intradomain_critical_path_delay setup_TNS setup_WNS hold_TNS hold_WNS crit_path_routing_area_total crit_path_routing_area_per_tile router_lookahead_computation_time crit_path_route_time crit_path_total_timing_analysis_time crit_path_total_sta_time
k6FracN10LB_mem20K_complexDSP_customSB_22nm.xml clstm_like.small.v common 19316.21 162.86 2395612 3 15651.23 -1 -1 1337084 -1 -1 9309 293 407 -1 success v8.0.0-4470-ge625fdfe9 release IPO VTR_ASSERT_LEVEL=2 GNU 7.5.0 on Linux-4.15.0-124-generic x86_64 2021-06-18T14:02:07 jupiter0 /export/aman/vtr_aman/vtr-verilog-to-routing/vtr_flow/tasks 4793656 293 290 374045 333664 1 99618 10661 152 152 23104 dsp_top auto 780.11 1482046 931.17 6.18 6.93257-474705 -6.93257 6.93257 27.96 1.30491 1.10886 193.621 147.02 -1 1762769 16 7.41832e+08 4.07655e+08 5.09972e+08 22072.9 106.48 263.016 205.56 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1
k6FracN10LB_mem20K_complexDSP_customSB_22nm.xml clstm_like.medium.v common 66156.51 483.84 4490632 3 60586.75 -1 -1 2480684 -1 -1 17641 293 784 -1 success v8.0.0-4470-ge625fdfe9 release IPO VTR_ASSERT_LEVEL=2 GNU 7.5.0 on Linux-4.15.0-124-generic x86_64 2021-06-18T14:02:07 jupiter0 /export/aman/vtr_aman/vtr-verilog-to-routing/vtr_flow/tasks 8819072 293 578 696105 624609 1 181497 19958 206 206 42436 dsp_top auto 1057.61 3181171 1581.42 7.89 8.18417-1.24303e+06 -8.18417 8.18417 38.05 1.40496 0.993779 233.672 173.509 -1 3532357 18 1.36407e+09 7.68183e+08 9.34572e+08 22023.1 165.78 317.679 246.098 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1
k6FracN10LB_mem20K_complexDSP_customSB_22nm.xml clstm_like.large.v common 101695.32 717.44 6547568 3 94597.42 -1 -1 3590044 -1 -1 25995 293 1161 -1 success v8.0.0-4470-ge625fdfe9 release IPO VTR_ASSERT_LEVEL=2 GNU 7.5.0 on Linux-4.15.0-124-generic x86_64 2021-06-18T14:02:07 jupiter0 /export/aman/vtr_aman/vtr-verilog-to-routing/vtr_flow/tasks 13040176 293 866 1018158 915547 1 263328 29277 248 248 61504 dsp_top auto 1503.62 5185716 1951.96 10.18 8.86387-1.97516e+06 -8.86387 8.86387 46.08 1.71937 1.21506 288.67 213.718 -1 5523775 18 1.98856e+09 1.12933e+09 1.35238e+09 21988.4 224.14 391.303 303.49 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1
k6FracN10LB_mem20K_complexDSP_customSB_22nm.xml lstm.v common 38901.96 35.76 651868 7 30532.88 -1 -1 606240 -1 -1 6626 17 305 -1 success v8.0.0-4470-ge625fdfe9 release IPO VTR_ASSERT_LEVEL=2 GNU 7.5.0 on Linux-4.15.0-124-generic x86_64 2021-06-18T14:02:07 jupiter0 /export/aman/vtr_aman/vtr-verilog-to-routing/vtr_flow/tasks 6036204 17 19 252939 204226 1 121211 7577 200 200 40000 dsp_top auto 4576.24 1453809 1136.46 3.95 8.38544 -386636 -8.385448.38544 54.87 0.944433 0.763732 237.758 176.282 -1 1876011 15 1.28987e+09 3.81683e+08 8.80433e+08 22010.877.53 284.979 214.902 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1
Instead of running tests/designs locally to generate QoR data, you can also extract the QoR data from any of the standard test runs performed automatically by CI on a pull request. To get the QoR results of the above tests, go to the "Action" tab. On the menu on the left, choose "Test" and select your workflow. If running the tests is done, scroll down and click on "artifact". This would download the results for all CI tests.
Assume that we want to get the QoR results for "vtr_reg_nightly_test3". In the artifact, there is a file named "qor_results_vtr_reg_nightly_test3.tar.gz." Unzip this file, and a new directory named "vtr_flow" is created. Go to "vtr_flow/tasks/regression_tests/vtr_reg_nightly_test3." In this directory, you can find a directory for each benchmark contained in this test suite (vtr_reg_nightly_test3.) In the directory for each sub-test, there is another directory named run001. Two files are here: qor_results.txt, and parse_results.txt. QoR results for all circuits tested in this benchmark are stored in these files. Using these parsed results, you can do a detailed QoR comparison using the instructions given here.
Once you have two (or more) sets of QoR measurements they now need to be compared.
A general method is as follows:
- Normalize all metrics to the values in the baseline measurements (this makes the relative changes easy to evaluate)
- Produce tables for each set of QoR measurements showing the per-benchmark relative values for each metric
- Calculate the GEOMEAN over all benchmarks for each normalized metric
- Produce a summary table showing the Metric Geomeans for each set of QoR measurements
There are a variety of 'gotchas' you need to avoid to ensure fair comparisons:
-
GEOMEAN's must be over the same set of benchmarks . A common issue is that a benchmark failed to complete for some reason, and it's metric values are missing
-
Run-times need to be collected on the same compute infrastructure at the same system load (ideally unloaded).
Suppose we've make a change to VTR, and we now want to evaluate the change. As described above we produce QoR measurements for both the VTR baseline, and our modified version.
We then have the following (hypothetical) QoR Metrics.
Baseline QoR Metrics:
arch | circuit | num_pre_packed_blocks | num_post_packed_blocks | device_grid_tiles | min_chan_width | crit_path_routed_wirelength | critical_path_delay | vtr_flow_elapsed_time | pack_time | place_time | min_chan_width_route_time | crit_path_route_time | max_vpr_mem |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | bgm.v | 24575 | 2258 | 2809 | 84 | 297718 | 20.4406 | 652.17 | 141.53 | 108.26 | 142.42 | 15.63 | 1329712 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | blob_merge.v | 11407 | 700 | 900 | 64 | 75615 | 15.3479 | 198.58 | 67.89 | 11.3 | 47.6 | 3.48 | 307756 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | boundtop.v | 1141 | 389 | 169 | 34 | 3767 | 3.96224 | 7.24 | 2.55 | 0.82 | 2.1 | 0.15 | 87552 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | ch_intrinsics.v | 493 | 247 | 100 | 46 | 1438 | 2.4542 | 2.59 | 0.46 | 0.31 | 0.94 | 0.09 | 62684 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | diffeq1.v | 886 | 313 | 256 | 60 | 9624 | 17.9648 | 15.59 | 2.45 | 1.36 | 9.93 | 0.93 | 86524 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | diffeq2.v | 599 | 201 | 256 | 52 | 8928 | 13.7083 | 13.14 | 1.41 | 0.87 | 9.14 | 0.94 | 85760 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | LU8PEEng.v | 31396 | 2286 | 2916 | 100 | 348085 | 79.4512 | 1514.51 | 175.67 | 153.01 | 1009.08 | 45.47 | 1410872 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | LU32PEEng.v | 101542 | 7251 | 9216 | 158 | 1554942 | 80.062 | 28051.68 | 625.03 | 930.58 | 25050.73 | 251.87 | 4647936 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | mcml.v | 165809 | 6767 | 8649 | 128 | 1311825 | 51.1905 | 9088.1 | 524.8 | 742.85 | 4001.03 | 127.42 | 4999124 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | mkDelayWorker32B.v | 4145 | 1327 | 2500 | 38 | 30086 | 8.39902 | 65.54 | 7.73 | 15.39 | 26.19 | 3.23 | 804720 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | mkPktMerge.v | 1160 | 516 | 784 | 44 | 13370 | 4.4408 | 21.75 | 2.45 | 2.14 | 13.95 | 1.96 | 122872 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | mkSMAdapter4B.v | 2852 | 548 | 400 | 48 | 19274 | 5.26765 | 47.64 | 16.22 | 4.16 | 19.95 | 1.14 | 116012 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | or1200.v | 4530 | 1321 | 729 | 62 | 51633 | 9.67406 | 105.62 | 33.37 | 12.93 | 44.95 | 3.33 | 219376 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | raygentop.v | 2934 | 710 | 361 | 58 | 22045 | 5.14713 | 39.72 | 9.54 | 4.06 | 19.8 | 2.34 | 126056 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | sha.v | 3024 | 236 | 289 | 62 | 16653 | 10.0144 | 390.89 | 11.47 | 2.7 | 6.18 | 0.75 | 117612 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | stereovision0.v | 21801 | 1122 | 1156 | 58 | 64935 | 3.63177 | 82.74 | 20.45 | 15.49 | 24.5 | 2.6 | 411884 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | stereovision1.v | 19538 | 1096 | 1600 | 100 | 143517 | 5.61925 | 272.41 | 26.99 | 18.15 | 149.46 | 15.49 | 676844 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | stereovision2.v | 42078 | 2534 | 7396 | 134 | 650583 | 15.3151 | 3664.98 | 66.72 | 119.26 | 3388.7 | 62.6 | 3114880 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | stereovision3.v | 324 | 55 | 49 | 30 | 768 | 2.66429 | 2.25 | 0.75 | 0.2 | 0.57 | 0.05 | 61148 |
Modified QoR Metrics:
arch | circuit | num_pre_packed_blocks | num_post_packed_blocks | device_grid_tiles | min_chan_width | crit_path_routed_wirelength | critical_path_delay | vtr_flow_elapsed_time | pack_time | place_time | min_chan_width_route_time | crit_path_route_time | max_vpr_mem |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | bgm.v | 24575 | 2193 | 2809 | 82 | 303891 | 20.414 | 642.01 | 70.09 | 113.58 | 198.09 | 16.27 | 1222072 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | blob_merge.v | 11407 | 684 | 900 | 72 | 77261 | 14.6676 | 178.16 | 34.31 | 13.38 | 57.89 | 3.35 | 281468 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | boundtop.v | 1141 | 369 | 169 | 40 | 3465 | 3.5255 | 4.48 | 1.13 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 0.17 | 82912 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | ch_intrinsics.v | 493 | 241 | 100 | 54 | 1424 | 2.50601 | 1.75 | 0.19 | 0.27 | 0.43 | 0.09 | 60796 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | diffeq1.v | 886 | 293 | 256 | 50 | 9972 | 17.3124 | 15.24 | 0.69 | 0.97 | 11.27 | 1.44 | 72204 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | diffeq2.v | 599 | 187 | 256 | 50 | 7621 | 13.1714 | 14.14 | 0.63 | 1.04 | 10.93 | 0.78 | 68900 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | LU8PEEng.v | 31396 | 2236 | 2916 | 98 | 349074 | 77.8611 | 1269.26 | 88.44 | 153.25 | 843.31 | 49.13 | 1319276 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | LU32PEEng.v | 101542 | 6933 | 9216 | 176 | 1700697 | 80.1368 | 28290.01 | 306.21 | 897.95 | 25668.4 | 278.74 | 4224048 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | mcml.v | 165809 | 6435 | 8649 | 124 | 1240060 | 45.6693 | 9384.4 | 296.99 | 686.27 | 4782.43 | 99.4 | 4370788 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | mkDelayWorker32B.v | 4145 | 1207 | 2500 | 36 | 33354 | 8.3986 | 53.94 | 3.85 | 14.75 | 19.53 | 2.95 | 785316 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | mkPktMerge.v | 1160 | 494 | 784 | 36 | 13881 | 4.57189 | 20.75 | 0.82 | 1.97 | 15.01 | 1.88 | 117636 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | mkSMAdapter4B.v | 2852 | 529 | 400 | 56 | 19817 | 5.21349 | 27.58 | 5.05 | 2.66 | 14.65 | 1.11 | 103060 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | or1200.v | 4530 | 1008 | 729 | 76 | 48034 | 8.70797 | 202.25 | 10.1 | 8.31 | 171.96 | 2.86 | 178712 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | raygentop.v | 2934 | 634 | 361 | 58 | 20799 | 5.04571 | 22.58 | 2.75 | 2.42 | 12.86 | 1.64 | 108116 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | sha.v | 3024 | 236 | 289 | 62 | 16052 | 10.5007 | 337.19 | 5.32 | 2.25 | 4.52 | 0.69 | 105948 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | stereovision0.v | 21801 | 1121 | 1156 | 58 | 70046 | 3.61684 | 86.5 | 9.5 | 15.02 | 41.81 | 2.59 | 376100 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | stereovision1.v | 19538 | 1080 | 1600 | 92 | 142805 | 6.02319 | 343.83 | 10.68 | 16.21 | 247.99 | 11.66 | 480352 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | stereovision2.v | 42078 | 2416 | 7396 | 124 | 646793 | 14.6606 | 5614.79 | 34.81 | 107.66 | 5383.58 | 62.27 | 2682976 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | stereovision3.v | 324 | 54 | 49 | 34 | 920 | 2.5281 | 1.55 | 0.31 | 0.14 | 0.43 | 0.05 | 63444 |
Based on these metrics we then calculate the following ratios and summary.
QoR Metric Ratio (Modified QoR / Baseline QoR):
arch | circuit | num_pre_packed_blocks | num_post_packed_blocks | device_grid_tiles | min_chan_width | crit_path_routed_wirelength | critical_path_delay | vtr_flow_elapsed_time | pack_time | place_time | min_chan_width_route_time | crit_path_route_time | max_vpr_mem |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | bgm.v | 1.00 | 0.97 | 1.00 | 0.98 | 1.02 | 1.00 | 0.98 | 0.50 | 1.05 | 1.39 | 1.04 | 0.92 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | blob_merge.v | 1.00 | 0.98 | 1.00 | 1.13 | 1.02 | 0.96 | 0.90 | 0.51 | 1.18 | 1.22 | 0.96 | 0.91 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | boundtop.v | 1.00 | 0.95 | 1.00 | 1.18 | 0.92 | 0.89 | 0.62 | 0.44 | 0.85 | 0.43 | 1.13 | 0.95 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | ch_intrinsics.v | 1.00 | 0.98 | 1.00 | 1.17 | 0.99 | 1.02 | 0.68 | 0.41 | 0.87 | 0.46 | 1.00 | 0.97 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | diffeq1.v | 1.00 | 0.94 | 1.00 | 0.83 | 1.04 | 0.96 | 0.98 | 0.28 | 0.71 | 1.13 | 1.55 | 0.83 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | diffeq2.v | 1.00 | 0.93 | 1.00 | 0.96 | 0.85 | 0.96 | 1.08 | 0.45 | 1.20 | 1.20 | 0.83 | 0.80 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | LU8PEEng.v | 1.00 | 0.98 | 1.00 | 0.98 | 1.00 | 0.98 | 0.84 | 0.50 | 1.00 | 0.84 | 1.08 | 0.94 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | LU32PEEng.v | 1.00 | 0.96 | 1.00 | 1.11 | 1.09 | 1.00 | 1.01 | 0.49 | 0.96 | 1.02 | 1.11 | 0.91 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | mcml.v | 1.00 | 0.95 | 1.00 | 0.97 | 0.95 | 0.89 | 1.03 | 0.57 | 0.92 | 1.20 | 0.78 | 0.87 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | mkDelayWorker32B.v | 1.00 | 0.91 | 1.00 | 0.95 | 1.11 | 1.00 | 0.82 | 0.50 | 0.96 | 0.75 | 0.91 | 0.98 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | mkPktMerge.v | 1.00 | 0.96 | 1.00 | 0.82 | 1.04 | 1.03 | 0.95 | 0.33 | 0.92 | 1.08 | 0.96 | 0.96 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | mkSMAdapter4B.v | 1.00 | 0.97 | 1.00 | 1.17 | 1.03 | 0.99 | 0.58 | 0.31 | 0.64 | 0.73 | 0.97 | 0.89 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | or1200.v | 1.00 | 0.76 | 1.00 | 1.23 | 0.93 | 0.90 | 1.91 | 0.30 | 0.64 | 3.83 | 0.86 | 0.81 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | raygentop.v | 1.00 | 0.89 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 0.94 | 0.98 | 0.57 | 0.29 | 0.60 | 0.65 | 0.70 | 0.86 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | sha.v | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 0.96 | 1.05 | 0.86 | 0.46 | 0.83 | 0.73 | 0.92 | 0.90 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | stereovision0.v | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.08 | 1.00 | 1.05 | 0.46 | 0.97 | 1.71 | 1.00 | 0.91 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | stereovision1.v | 1.00 | 0.99 | 1.00 | 0.92 | 1.00 | 1.07 | 1.26 | 0.40 | 0.89 | 1.66 | 0.75 | 0.71 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | stereovision2.v | 1.00 | 0.95 | 1.00 | 0.93 | 0.99 | 0.96 | 1.53 | 0.52 | 0.90 | 1.59 | 0.99 | 0.86 |
k6_frac_N10_frac_chain_mem32K_40nm.xml | stereovision3.v | 1.00 | 0.98 | 1.00 | 1.13 | 1.20 | 0.95 | 0.69 | 0.41 | 0.70 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.04 |
GEOMEAN | 1.00 | 0.95 | 1.00 | 1.02 | 1.01 | 0.98 | 0.92 | 0.42 | 0.87 | 1.03 | 0.96 | 0.89 |
QoR Summary:
baseline | modified | |
---|---|---|
num_pre_packed_blocks | 1.00 | 1.00 |
num_post_packed_blocks | 1.00 | 0.95 |
device_grid_tiles | 1.00 | 1.00 |
min_chan_width | 1.00 | 1.02 |
crit_path_routed_wirelength | 1.00 | 1.01 |
critical_path_delay | 1.00 | 0.98 |
vtr_flow_elapsed_time | 1.00 | 0.92 |
pack_time | 1.00 | 0.42 |
place_time | 1.00 | 0.87 |
min_chan_width_route_time | 1.00 | 1.03 |
crit_path_route_time | 1.00 | 0.96 |
max_vpr_mem | 1.00 | 0.89 |
From the results we can see that our change, on average, achieved a small reduction in the number of logic blocks (0.95) in return for a 2% increase in minimum channel width and 1% increase in routed wirelength. From a run-time perspective the packer is substantially faster (0.42).
To automate some of the QoR comparison VTR includes a script to compare parse_results.txt
files and generate a spreadsheet including the ratio and summary tables.
For example:
#From the VTR Root
$ ./vtr_flow/scripts/qor_compare.py parse_results1.txt parse_results2.txt parse_results3.txt -o comparison.xlsx
will produce ratio tables and a summary table for the files parse_results1.txt, parse_results2.txt and parse_results3.txt, where the first file (parse_results1.txt) is assumed to be the baseline used to produce normalized ratios.
There may be times when a regression test fails its QoR test because its golden_result needs to be changed due to known changes in code behaviour. In this case, a new golden result needs to be generated so that the test can be passed. To generate a new golden result, follow the steps outlined below.
-
Move to the
vtr_flow/tasks
directory from the VTR root, and run the failing test. For example, if a test calledvtr_ex_test
invtr_reg_nightly_test3
was failing:#From the VTR root $ cd vtr_flow/tasks $ ../scripts/run_vtr_task.py regression_tests/vtr_reg_nightly_test3/vtr_ex_test
-
Next, generate new golden reference results using
parse_vtr_task.py
and the-create_golden
option.$ ../scripts/python_libs/vtr/parse_vtr_task.py regression_tests/vtr_reg_nightly_test3/vtr_ex_test -create_golden
-
Lastly, check that the results match with the
-check_golden
option$ ../scripts/python_libs/vtr/parse_vtr_task.py regression_tests/vtr_reg_nightly_test3/vtr_ex_test -check_golden
Once the -check_golden
command passes, the changes to the golden result can be committed so that the reg test will pass in future runs of vtr_reg_nightly_test3.
Attention Even though the parsed files are located in different locations, the names of the parsed files should be different.
Any time you add a feature to VTR you must add a test which exercises the feature. This ensures that regression tests will detect if the feature breaks in the future.
Consider which regression test suite your test should be added to (see Running Tests descriptions).
Typically, test which exercise new features should be added to vtr_reg_strong
.
These tests should use small benchmarks to ensure they:
- run quickly (so they get run often!), and
- are easier to debug. If your test will take more than ~1 minute it should probably go in a longer running regression test (but see first if you can create a smaller testcase first).
This describes adding a test to vtr_reg_strong
, but the process is similar for the other regression tests.
-
Create a configuration file
First move to the vtr_reg_strong directory:
#From the VTR root directory $ cd vtr_flow/tasks/regression_tests/vtr_reg_strong $ ls qor_geomean.txt strong_flyover_wires strong_pack_and_place strong_analysis_only strong_fpu_hard_block_arch strong_power strong_bounding_box strong_fracturable_luts strong_route_only strong_breadth_first strong_func_formal_flow strong_scale_delay_budgets strong_constant_outputs strong_func_formal_vpr strong_sweep_constant_outputs strong_custom_grid strong_global_routing strong_timing strong_custom_pin_locs strong_manual_annealing strong_titan strong_custom_switch_block strong_mcnc strong_valgrind strong_echo_files strong_minimax_budgets strong_verify_rr_graph strong_fc_abs strong_multiclock task_list.txt strong_fix_pins_pad_file strong_no_timing task_summary strong_fix_pins_random strong_pack
Each folder (prefixed with
strong_
in this case) defines a task (sub-test).Let's make a new task named
strong_mytest
. An easy way is to copy an existing configuration file such asstrong_timing/config/config.txt
$ mkdir -p strong_mytest/config $ cp strong_timing/config/config.txt strong_mytest/config/.
You can now edit
strong_mytest/config/config.txt
to customize your test. -
Generate golden reference results
Now we need to test our new test and generate 'golden' reference results. These will be used to compare future runs of our test to detect any changes in behaviour (e.g. bugs).
From the VTR root, we move to the
vtr_flow/tasks
directory, and then run our new test:#From the VTR root $ cd vtr_flow/tasks $ ../scripts/run_vtr_task.py regression_tests/vtr_reg_strong/strong_mytest regression_tests/vtr_reg_strong/strong_mytest ----------------------------------------- Current time: Jan-25 06:51 PM. Expected runtime of next benchmark: Unknown k6_frac_N10_mem32K_40nm/ch_intrinsics...OK
Next we can generate the golden reference results using
parse_vtr_task.py
with the-create_golden
option:$ ../scripts/python_libs/vtr/parse_vtr_task.py regression_tests/vtr_reg_strong/strong_mytest -create_golden
And check that everything matches with
-check_golden
:$ ../scripts/python_libs/vtr/parse_vtr_task.py regression_tests/vtr_reg_strong/strong_mytest -check_golden regression_tests/vtr_reg_strong/strong_mytest...[Pass]
-
Add it to the task list
We now need to add our new
strong_mytest
task to the task list, so it is run whenevervtr_reg_strong
is run. We do this by adding the lineregression_tests/vtr_reg_strong/strong_mytest
to the end ofvtr_reg_strong
'stask_list.txt
:#From the VTR root directory $ vim vtr_flow/tasks/regression_tests/vtr_reg_strong/task_list.txt # Add a new line 'regression_tests/vtr_reg_strong/strong_mytest' to the end of the file
Now, when we run
vtr_reg_strong
:#From the VTR root directory $ ./run_reg_test.py vtr_reg_strong #Output trimmed... regression_tests/vtr_reg_strong/strong_mytest ----------------------------------------- #Output trimmed...
we see our test is run.
-
Commit the new test
Finally you need to commit your test:
#Add the config.txt and golden_results.txt for the test $ git add vtr_flow/tasks/regression_tests/vtr_reg_strong/strong_mytest/ #Add the change to the task_list.txt $ git add vtr_flow/tasks/regression_tests/vtr_reg_strong/task_list.txt #Commit the changes, when pushed the test will automatically be picked up by BuildBot $ git commit
VTR has support for several additional tools/features to aid debugging.
VTR can be compiled using sanitizers which will detect invalid memory accesses, memory leaks and undefined behaviour (supported by both GCC and LLVM):
#From the VTR root directory
$ cmake -D VTR_ENABLE_SANITIZE=ON build
$ make
You can suppress reporting of known memory leaks in libraries used by vpr by setting the environment variable below:
LSAN_OPTIONS=suppressions=$VTR_ROOT/vpr/lsan.supp
where $VTR_ROOT is the root directory of your vtr source code tree.
Note that some of the continuous integration (CI) regtests (run automatically on pull requests) turn on sanitizers (currently S: Basic and R: Odin-II Basic Tests)
An alternative way to run vtr programs to check for invalid memory accesses and memory leaks is to use the valgrind tool. valgrind can be run on any build except the sanitized build, without recompilation. For example, to run on vpr use
#From the VTR root directory
valgrind --leak-check=full --suppressions=./vpr/valgrind.supp ./vpr/vpr [... usual vpr options here ...]
The suppression file included in the command above will suppress reporting of known memory leaks in libraries included by vpr.
Note that valgrind is run on some flows by the continuous integration (CI) tests.
VTR supports configurable assertion levels.
The default level (2
) which turns on most assertions which don't cause significant run-time penalties.
This level can be increased:
#From the VTR root directory
$ cmake -D VTR_ASSERT_LEVEL=3 build
$ make
this turns on more extensive assertion checking and re-builds VTR.
To make it easier to debug some of VTR's data structures with GDB.
It is helpful to enable STL pretty printers, which make it much easier to debug data structures using STL.
For example printing a std::vector<int>
by default prints:
(gdb) p/r x_locs
$2 = {<std::_Vector_base<int, std::allocator<int> >> = {
_M_impl = {<std::allocator<int>> = {<__gnu_cxx::new_allocator<int>> = {<No data fields>}, <No data fields>}, _M_start = 0x555556f063b0,
_M_finish = 0x555556f063dc, _M_end_of_storage = 0x555556f064b0}}, <No data fields>}
which is not very helpful.
But with STL pretty printers it prints:
(gdb) p x_locs
$2 = std::vector of length 11, capacity 64 = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10}
which is much more helpful for debugging!
If STL pretty printers aren't already enabled on your system, add the following to your .gdbinit file:
python
import sys
sys.path.insert(0, '$STL_PRINTER_ROOT')
from libstdcxx.v6.printers import register_libstdcxx_printers
register_libstdcxx_printers(None)
end
where $STL_PRINTER_ROOT
should be replaced with the appropriate path to the STL pretty printers.
For example recent versions of GCC include these under /usr/share/gcc-*/python
(e.g. /usr/share/gcc-9/python
)
VTR includes some pretty printers for some VPR/VTR specific types.
For example, without the pretty printers you would see the following when printing a VPR AtomBlockId
:
(gdb) p blk_id
$1 = {
id_ = 71
}
But with the VTR pretty printers enabled you would see:
(gdb) p blk_id
$1 = AtomBlockId(71)
To enable the VTR pretty printers in GDB add the following to your .gdbinit file:
python
import sys
sys.path.insert(0, "$VTR_ROOT/dev")
import vtr_gdb_pretty_printers
gdb.pretty_printers.append(vtr_gdb_pretty_printers.vtr_type_lookup)
end
where $VTR_ROOT
should be replaced with the root of the VTR source tree on your system.
RR extends GDB with the ability to to record a run of a tool and then re-run it to reproduce any observed issues. RR also enables efficient reverse execution (!) which can be extremely helpful when tracking down the source of a bug.
Rapid iteration through the edit-compile-test/debug cycle is very helpful when making code changes to VTR.
The following is some guidance on techniques to reduce the time required.
-
Parallel compilation
For instance when building VTR using make, you can specify the
-j N
option to compile the code base with N parallel jobs:$ make -j N
A reasonable value for
N
is equal to the number of threads you system can run. For instance, if your system has 4 cores with HyperThreading (i.e. 2-way SMT) you could run:$ make -j8
-
Building only a subset of VTR
If you know your changes only effect a specific tool in VTR, you can request that only that tool is rebuilt. For instance, if you only wanted to re-compile VPR you could run:
$ make vpr
which would avoid re-building other tools (e.g. ODIN, ABC).
-
Use ccache
ccache is a program which caches previous compilation results. This can save significant time, for instance, when switching back and forth between release and debug builds.
VTR's cmake configuration should automatically detect and make use of ccache once it is installed.
For instance on Ubuntu/Debian systems you can install ccache with:
$ sudo apt install ccache
This only needs to be done once on your development system.
-
Disable Interprocedural Optimizatiaons (IPO)
IPO re-optimizes an entire executable at link time, and is automatically enabled by VTR if a supporting compiler is found. This can notably improve performance (e.g. ~10-20% faster), but can significantly increase compilation time (e.g. >2x in some cases). When frequently re-compiling and debugging the extra execution speed may not be worth the longer compilation times. In such cases you can manually disable IPO by setting the cmake parameter
VTR_IPO_BUILD=off
.For instance using the wrapper Makefile:
$ make CMAKE_PARAMS="-DVTR_IPO_BUILD=off"
Note that this option is sticky, so subsequent calls to make don't need to keep specifying VTR_IPO_BUILD, until you want to re-enable it.
This setting can also be changed with the ccmake tool (i.e.
ccmake build
).
All of these option can be used in combination. For example, the following will re-build only VPR using 8 parallel jobs with IPO disabled:
make CMAKE_PARAMS="-DVTR_IPO_BUILD=off" -j8 vpr
-
Install
gprof
,gprof2dot
, andxdot
. Specifically, the previous two packages require python3, and you should install the last one withsudo apt install
for all the dependencies you will need for visualizing your profile results.pip3 install gprof pip3 install gprof2dot sudo apt install xdot
Contact your administrator if you do not have the
sudo
rights. -
Use the CMake option below to enable VPR profiler build.
make CMAKE_PARAMS="-DVTR_ENABLE_PROFILING=ON" vpr
-
With the profiler build, each time you run the VTR flow script, it will produce an extra file
gmon.out
that contains the raw profile information. Rungprof
to parse this file. You will need to specify the path to the VPR executable.gprof $VTR_ROOT/vpr/vpr gmon.out > gprof.txt
-
Next, use
gprof2dot
to transform the parsed results to a.dot
file, which describes the graph of your final profile results. If you encounter long function names, specify the-s
option for a cleaner graph.gprof2dot -s gprof.txt > vpr.dot
-
You can chain the above commands to directly produce the
.dot
file:gprof $VTR_ROOT/vpr/vpr gmon.out | gprof2dot -s > vpr.dot
-
Use
xdot
to view your results:xdot vpr.dot
-
To save your results as a
png
file:dot -Tpng -Gdpi=300 vpr.dot > vpr.png
Note that you can use the
-Gdpi
option to make your picture clearer if you find the default dpi settings not clear enough.
VTR includes some code which is developed in external repositories, and is integrated into the VTR source tree using git subtrees.
To simplify the process of working with subtrees we use the dev/external_subtrees.py
script.
For instance, running ./dev/external_subtrees.py --list
from the VTR root it shows the subtrees:
Component: abc Path: abc URL: https://github.com/berkeley-abc/abc.git URL_Ref: master
Component: libargparse Path: libs/EXTERNAL/libargparse URL: https://github.com/kmurray/libargparse.git URL_Ref: master
Component: libblifparse Path: libs/EXTERNAL/libblifparse URL: https://github.com/kmurray/libblifparse.git URL_Ref: master
Component: libsdcparse Path: libs/EXTERNAL/libsdcparse URL: https://github.com/kmurray/libsdcparse.git URL_Ref: master
Component: libtatum Path: libs/EXTERNAL/libtatum URL: https://github.com/kmurray/tatum.git URL_Ref: master
Code included in VTR by subtrees should not be modified within the VTR source tree. Instead changes should be made in the relevant up-stream repository, and then synced into the VTR tree.
-
From the VTR root run:
./dev/external_subtrees.py $SUBTREE_NAME
, where$SUBTREE_NAME
is the name of an existing subtree.For example to update the
libtatum
subtree:./dev/external_subtrees.py --update libtatum
To add a new external subtree to VTR do the following:
-
Add the subtree specification to
dev/subtree_config.xml
.For example to add a subtree name
libfoo
from themaster
branch ofhttps://github.com/kmurray/libfoo.git
tolibs/EXTERNAL/libfoo
you would add:<subtree name="libfoo" internal_path="libs/EXTERNAL/libfoo" external_url="https://github.com/kmurray/libfoo.git" default_external_ref="master"/>
within the existing
<subtrees>
tag.Note that the internal_path directory should not already exist.
You can confirm it works by running:
dev/external_subtrees.py --list
:Component: abc Path: abc URL: https://github.com/berkeley-abc/abc.git URL_Ref: master Component: libargparse Path: libs/EXTERNAL/libargparse URL: https://github.com/kmurray/libargparse.git URL_Ref: master Component: libblifparse Path: libs/EXTERNAL/libblifparse URL: https://github.com/kmurray/libblifparse.git URL_Ref: master Component: libsdcparse Path: libs/EXTERNAL/libsdcparse URL: https://github.com/kmurray/libsdcparse.git URL_Ref: master Component: libtatum Path: libs/EXTERNAL/libtatum URL: https://github.com/kmurray/tatum.git URL_Ref: master Component: libfoo Path: libs/EXTERNAL/libfoo URL: https://github.com/kmurray/libfoo.git URL_Ref: master
which shows libfoo is now recognized.
-
Run
./dev/external_subtrees.py --update $SUBTREE_NAME
to add the subtree.For the
libfoo
example above this would be:./dev/external_subtrees.py --update libfoo
This will create two commits to the repository. The first will squash all the upstream changes, the second will merge those changes into the current branch.
VTR uses subtrees to allow easy tracking of upstream dependencies.
Their main advantages included:
- Works out-of-the-box: no actions needed post checkout to pull in dependencies (e.g. no
git submodule update --init --recursive
) - Simplified upstream version tracking
- Potential for local changes (although in VTR we do not use this to make keeping in sync easier)
See here for a more detailed discussion.
Coverity Scan is a static code analysis service which can be used to detect bugs.
To view defects detected do the following:
-
Get a coverity scan account
Contact a project maintainer for an invitation.
-
Browse the existing defects through the coverity web interface
To submit a build to coverity do the following:
-
Download the coverity build tool
-
Configure VTR to perform a debug build. This ensures that all assertions are enabled, without assertions coverity may report bugs that are guarded against by assertions. We also set VTR asserts to the highest level.
#From the VTR root mkdir -p build cd build CC=gcc CXX=g++ cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=debug -DVTR_ASSERT_LEVEL=3 ..
Note that we explicitly asked for gcc and g++, the coverity build tool defaults to these compilers, and may not like the default 'cc' or 'c++' (even if they are linked to gcc/g++).
-
Run the coverity build tool
#From the build directory where we ran cmake cov-build --dir cov-int make -j8
-
Archive the output directory
tar -czvf vtr_coverity.tar.gz cov-int
-
Submit the archive through the coverity web interface
Once the build has been analyzed you can browse the latest results through the coverity web interface
If you get the following warning from cov-build:
[WARNING] No files were emitted.
You may need to configure coverity to 'know' about your compiler. For example:
```shell
cov-configure --compiler `which gcc-7`
```
On unix-like systems run scan-build make
from the root VTR directory.
to output the html analysis to a specific folder, run scan-build make -o /some/folder
We periodically make 'official' VTR releases. While we aim to keep the VTR master branch stable through-out development some users prefer to work of off an official release. Historically this has coincided with the publishing of a paper detailing and carefully evaluating the changes from the previous VTR release. This is particularly helpful for giving academics a named baseline version of VTR to which they can compare which has a known quality.
In preparation for a release it may make sense to produce 'release candidates' which when fully tested and evaluated (and after any bug fixes) become the official release.
The following outlines the procedure to following when making an official VTR release:
- Check the code compiles on the list of supported compilers
- Check that all regression tests pass functionality
- Update regression test golden results to match the released version
- Check that all regression tests pass QoR
- Create a new entry in the CHANGELOG.md for the release, summarizing at a high-level user-facing changes
- Increment the version number (set in root CMakeLists.txt)
- Create a git annotated tag (e.g.
v8.0.0
) and push it to github - GitHub will automatically create a release based on the tag
- Add the new change log entry to the GitHub release description
- Update the ReadTheDocs configuration to build and serve documentation for the relevant tag (e.g.
v8.0.0
) - Send a release announcement email to the vtr-announce mailing list (make sure to thank all contributors!)