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From: David Blubaugh on 12 Jul 2010 16:58
To All,


I am right now in the process to determine if LISP can be utilized to
develop an FPGA applications??

Can I use LISP as a hardware description language and then have LISP
to be generated into a binary file to be downloaded to an FPGA??

Thanks,

David

From: Peter Keller on 12 Jul 2010 17:33
David Blubaugh <davidblubaugh2000(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> To All,
>
>
> I am right now in the process to determine if LISP can be utilized to
> develop an FPGA applications??
>
> Can I use LISP as a hardware description language and then have LISP
> to be generated into a binary file to be downloaded to an FPGA??

I haven't done any serious Verilog, or whatever, but do you mean something
like this?

Verilog:
module toplevel(clock,reset);
input clock;
input reset;

reg flop1;
reg flop2;

always @ (posedge reset or posedge clock)
if (reset)
begin
flop1 <= 0;
flop2 <= 1;
end
else
begin
flop1 <= flop2;
flop2 <= flop1;
end
endmodule

Made into (pulling out of my butt)

Made up Language:

(defmodule toplevel ((input clock)
(input reset))
(with-reg (flop1 flop2)
(while (or (posedge reset) (posedge clock))
(if reset
(progn
(setf-nb flop1 0)
(setf-nb flop2 1))
(progn
(setf-nb flop1 flop2)
(setf-nb flop2 flop1))))))

Then, there would just be a compiler which iterates over the form in
a meta-circular evaluator-like manner and compiles it to binary. LISP
can read/write binary files just fine. I haven't seen too much Verilog,
but Lisp macros might prove a nice thing in a syntac like the above.

The best thing is, I'm sure there is a completely other valid
interpretation of "Made Up Language" other people in this group could
give--and probably be far better than mine. I've only tinkered with
this stuff, but it seems very doable to me.

However, the solution I picked basically means you're implementing a LISP
syntax of Verilog. I don't know if that is worth it or what your motivations
are. But hey, it could be done.

-pete





From: Raffael Cavallaro on 12 Jul 2010 17:53
On 2010-07-12 16:58:04 -0400, David Blubaugh said:

> I am right now in the process to determine if LISP can be utilized to
> develop an FPGA applications??
>
> Can I use LISP as a hardware description language and then have LISP
> to be generated into a binary file to be downloaded to an FPGA??

Marc Battyani has been using Common Lisp with FPGAs for high
performance computing applications in medecine and finance:

<http://www.fractalconcept.com/>

and:

<http://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbattyani>

warmest regards,

Ralph

--
Raffael Cavallaro

From: Rob Warnock on 12 Jul 2010 20:19
David Blubaugh <davidblubaugh2000(a)gmail.com> wrote:
+---------------
| Can I use LISP as a hardware description language and then have LISP
| to be generated into a binary file to be downloaded to an FPGA??
+---------------

Short answer: Yes, but you'll need to have *good* documentation
on the binary file format.

Longer answer: If you look at the EDIF or ".EDN" files produced by
many common electronic design tools [schematic entry, etc.], you'll
find that EDIF files *are* S-expressions [albeit case-sensitive,
which can be handled in CL by using :INVERT readtable case], so
if you already use FPGA design tools which output EDIF then you
don't even have to output "binary" -- CL can easily output EDIF
text files directly.

In any case, the place to start is at the output: What is the
desired end result of your efforts? A file to be input into an
FPGA programmer? A file to be input into an EEROM programmer
[for those FPGAs which are programmed at pwoer-up by reading an
external EEROM]? Or what? You will need to know the format of *that*
file, in all of its gory details. You will then need to write a
CL program which generates that format. [Not a biggy -- see the
chapters on binary I/O in Peter Seibel's "Practical Common Lisp".]

If the final file format if proprietary and/or unavailable, then
you will have to target the file format of the last upstream tool
for which you *do* know the input format, e.g., an FPGA "place & route"
tool, perhaps. [That's why I pointed you at EDIF...]


-Rob

-----
Rob Warnock <rpw3(a)rpw3.org>
627 26th Avenue <URL:http://rpw3.org/>
San Mateo, CA 94403 (650)572-2607

From: D Herring on 12 Jul 2010 22:28
On 07/12/2010 05:53 PM, Raffael Cavallaro wrote:
> Marc Battyani has been using Common Lisp with FPGAs for high
> performance computing applications in medecine and finance:
>
> <http://www.fractalconcept.com/>
>
> and:
>
> <http://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbattyani>

See also the main NovaSparks website.
http://www.novasparks.com/

- Daniel

P.S. They gave a presentation at the Boston Lisp meeting a month or
two ago. The CL group is here in Boston; the hardware group is in
Paris. Pretty cool stuff. Many of us were drooling for this
technology to reach home computers. *Much* cooler than GPU programming.
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