DRAMSys/README.md

de.uni-kl.ems.dram.vp.system

Generic DRAM controller simulator and debug tools related to it.

Basic Setup

In a terminal window execute the commands that follow.

Go to your home directory.

$ cd

Create a directory for your projects.

$ mkdir projects

Clone the repository.

It is possible that you will work with a fork of the official codebase. A fork is a copy of a repository. In that case, after pushing changes into your copy you should create a pull request in order to your supervisor check and possibly bring your changes to the official codebase.

In case of doubts about which repository you should clone ask your supervisor.

$ git clone https://<user>@git.rhrk.uni-kl.de/<user>/dram.vp.system.git

Go to the project directory.

$ cd dram.vp.system

Execute the script below.

$ ./install_prerequisites.sh

With QTCreator

Execute the QTCreator.

$ qtcreator &

Use the menu bar and open the DRAMSys project.

File -> Open Project -> dram.vp.sys/dram/dramSys/dramSys.pro

When you open the project for the first time a configuration window pops-up. Then click in Configure Project and after that Build the project.

Repeat the procedure above and build the trace analyser project.

File -> Open Project -> dram.vp.sys/analyser/analyser/traceAnalizer.pro

Without QTCreator

In case you prefer a command line interface to the QTCreator GUI you can also use qmake to generate a Makefile and then compile the project.

$ cd dram
$ mkdir build
$ cd build
$ qmake ../dramSys/dramSys.pro
$ make

DRAMSys Configuration

The dramSys executable supports one argument which is a XML file that contains configurable aspects of the desired simulation. If no argument is passed through the command line a default configuration file will be loaded.

The XML code below shows a typical simulation configuration:

<simulation>
        <simconfig>
                    <Debug value="1" />
                    <DatabaseRecording value="1" />
                    <PowerAnalysys value="1" />
        </simconfig>
        <memspecs>
                <memspec src="../resources/configs/memspecs/WideIO.xml"></memspec>
        </memspecs>
        <addressmappings>
                <addressmapping src="../resources/configs/amconfigs/am_wideio.xml"></addressmapping>
        </addressmappings>
        <memconfigs>
           <memconfig src="../resources/configs/memconfigs/fifo.xml"/>
        </memconfigs>

<tracesetups>
      <tracesetup id="fifo">
       <device clkMhz="200">voco2.stl</device>
</tracesetup>
  </tracesetups>
</simulation>

Some configuration fields reference other XML files which contain more specialized chunks of the configuration, e.g. memory specification and address mapping.

The XML configuration files are parsed by the program and the configuration details extracted are assigned to the correspondent attributes of the internal configuration structure.

Configuration File Sections

The main configuration file is divided into self-contained sections, each of these sections is a set of logically related configuration aspects for the simulation.

The list below, which is not intended to be exhaustive, present the configuration sections and possible configuration fields.

• Simulator configuration

  • Database recording
  • Power analysis
  • Debug mode

• Memory specification

  • Memory ID: JEDEC_256Mb_WIDEIO_SDR-200_128bit, MICRON_4Gb_DDR4-2400_8bit_A, ...
  • Memory type: WIDEIO_SD, DDR4, ...

• Memory Architecture Specification

  • Width
  • Number of Banks
  • Number of Ranks
  • Number of Columns
  • Number of Rows
  • Data Rate
  • Burst Length

• Memory Timing Specification (memory dependent)

  • Clock in MHz
  • RC
  • RCD
  • RL
  • RP
  • RFC
  • RAS
  • WL
  • AL
  • DQSCK
  • RTP
  • WR
  • XP
  • XPDLL
  • XS
  • XSDLL
  • REFI
  • CL
  • TAW
  • RRD
  • CCD
  • WTR
  • CKE
  • CKESR

• Memory Power Specification

• Address Mapping

  • Length: address length in bits
  • Row: bits used for the row
  • Bank: bits used for the bank
  • Column: bits used for the column

• Memory Configuration

  • Bankwise Logic
  • Open Page Policy
  • Maximum Number of Transactions
  • Scheduler
  • Capacitor size
  • Powerdown Mode
  • Powerdown Timeout
  • Chip seed
  • CSV file
  • Storage Mode value

Some attributes are self-explanatory while others require some previous knowhow of memory technologies or some knowledge of the simulator source code.

DRAMSys Resources

Some resources of the simulator are available in the resources directory its sub-directories.

$ cd /projects/dram.vp.system/dram/resources

A short description of the content each directory follows.

• resources
  • configs: XML files used for configure specific details of the simulation.
    • am_configs: address mapping configuration
    • memconfigs: memory configuration
    • memspecs: configuration related to the memory technology
    • simconfigs: simulator configuration
  • scripts: useful tools like address scrambler, trace analyser, database creator, etc.
  • simulations: global configuration
  • traces: trace files for simulations. They contain accesses to memory in certain known scenarios.