clash-ghc

CAES Language for Synchronous Hardware

https://clash-lang.org/

Version on this page:1.2.5
LTS Haskell 19.33:1.6.4
Stackage Nightly 2024-12-04:1.8.1@rev:3
Latest on Hackage:1.8.1@rev:3

See all snapshots clash-ghc appears in

BSD-2-Clause licensed by The Clash Authors
Maintained by QBayLogic B.V.
This version can be pinned in stack with:clash-ghc-1.2.5@sha256:99905a8baa29ce70d71a00de1fe1329057b356dcc022a8ef557ea39e67fb941e,8294

clash-ghc - Haskell/GHC front-end for the Clash compiler

  • See the LICENSE file for license and copyright details
  • Contains code from the GHC compiler, see the LICENSE_GHC file for license and copyright details pertaining to that code.

Clash - A functional hardware description language

Clash is a functional hardware description language that borrows both its syntax and semantics from the functional programming language Haskell. The Clash compiler transforms these high-level descriptions to low-level synthesizable VHDL, Verilog, or SystemVerilog.

Features of Clash:

  • Strongly typed (like VHDL), yet with a very high degree of type inference, enabling both safe and fast prototying using consise descriptions (like Verilog).

  • Interactive REPL: load your designs in an interpreter and easily test all your component without needing to setup a test bench.

  • Higher-order functions, with type inference, result in designs that are fully parametric by default.

  • Synchronous sequential circuit design based on streams of values, called Signals, lead to natural descriptions of feedback loops.

  • Support for multiple clock domains, with type safe clock domain crossing.

Support

For updates and questions join the mailing list [email protected] or read the forum

Changes

Changelog for the Clash project

1.2.5 November 9th 2020

Fixed:

  • The normalizeType function now fully normalizes types which require calls to reduceTypeFamily #1469
  • flogBaseSNat, clogBaseSNat and logBaseSNat primitives are now implemented correctly.Previously these primitives would be left unevaluated causing issues as demonstrated in #1479
  • Specializing on functions with type family arguments no longer fails #1477
  • satSucc, satPred correctly handle “small types” such as Index 1.
  • msb no longer fails on values larger than 64 bits
  • undefined can now be used as a reset value of autoReg@Maybe #1507
  • Signal’s fmap is now less strict, preventing infinite loops in very specific situations. See #1521
  • Clash now uses correct function names in manifest and sdc files #1533
  • Clash no longer produces erroneous HDL in very specific cases #1536
  • Usage of fold inside other HO primitives (e.g., map) no longer fails #1524

1.2.4 July 28th 2020

  • Changed:
    • Relaxed upper bound versions of aeson and dlist, in preparation for the new Stack LTS.
    • Reverted changes to primitive definitions for ‘zipWith’, ‘map’, ‘foldr’, and ‘init’ introduced in 1.2.2. They have shown to cause problems in very specific circumstances.

1.2.3 July 11th 2020

  • Changed:

    • Upgrade to nixos 20.03. Nix and snap users will now use packages present in 20.03.
  • Added:

    • instance Monoid a => Monoid (Vec n a)
    • instance Text.Printf(Index)
    • instance Text.Printf(Signed)
    • instance Text.Printf(Unsigned)
  • Fixed:

    • Clash renders incorrect VHDL when GHCs Worker/Wrapper transformation is enabled #1402
    • Minor faults in generated HDL when using annotations from Clash.Annotations.SynthesisAttributes
    • Cabal installed through Snap (clash.cabal) can now access the internet to fetch pacakges. [#1411]https://github.com/clash-lang/clash-compiler/issues/1411
    • Generated QSys file for altpll incompatible with Quartus CLI (did work in Quartus GUI)
    • Clash no longer uses component names that clash with identifiers imported from:

1.2.2 June 12th 2020

  • Changed:

    • The hardwired functions to unroll primitive definitions for ‘zipWith’, ‘map’, ‘foldr’, and ‘init’ have been changed to only unroll a single step, whereas they would previously unroll the whole definition in one step. This allows Clash to take advantage of the lazy nature of these functions, in turn speeding up compilation speeds significantly in some cases. Part of PR 1354.
  • Added:

    • Support for GHC 8.10
    • Ability to load designs from precompiled modules (i.e., stored in a package database). See #1172
    • Support for ‘-main-is’ when used with --vhdl, --verilog, or --systemverilog
    • A partial instance for NFDataX (Signal domain a)
  • Fixed:

    • Clash’s evaluator now inlines work free definitions, preventing situations where it would otherwise get stuck in an infinite loop
    • caseCon doesn’t apply type-substitution correctly #1340
    • Clash generates illegal SystemVerilog slice #1313
    • Fix result type of head and tail Verilog blackboxes #1351
    • Certain recursive let-expressions in side a alternatives of a case-expression throw the Clash compiler into an infinite loop #1316
    • Fixes issue with one of Clash’s transformations, inlineCleanup, introducing free variables #1337
    • Fails to propagate type information of existential type #1310
    • Certain case-expressions throw the Clash compiler into an infinite loop #1320
    • Added blackbox implementation for ‘Clash.Sized.Vector.iterateI’, hence making it usable as a register reset value #1240
    • iterate and iterateI can now be used in reset values #1240
    • Prim evaluation fails on undefined arguments #1297
    • Missing re-indexing in (Un)Signed fromSLV conversion #1292
    • VHDL: generate a type qualification inside ~TOBV, fixes #1360

1.2.1 April 23rd 2020

  • Changed:

    • Treat Signed 0, Unsigned 0, Index 1, BitVector 0 as unit. In effect this means that ‘minBound’ and ‘maxBound’ return 0, whereas previously they might crash #1183
    • Infix use of deepseqX is now right-associative
  • Added:

    • Add ‘natToInteger’, ‘natToNatural’, and ‘natToNum’. Similar to ‘snatTo*’, but works solely on a type argument instead of an SNat.
    • Clash.Sized.Vector.unfoldr and Clash.Sized.Vector.unfoldrI to construct vectors from a seed value
    • Added NFDataX instances for Data.Monoid.{First,Last}
  • Fixed:

    • The Verilog backend can now deal with non-contiguous ranges in custom bit-representations.
    • Synthesizing BitPack instances for type with phantom parameter fails #1242
    • Synthesis of fromBNat (toBNat d5) failed due to unsafeCoerce coercing from Any
    • Memory leak in register primitives #1256
    • Illegal VHDL slice when projecting nested SOP type #1254
    • Vivado VHDL code path (-fclash-hdlsyn Vivado) generates illegal VHDL #1264

1.2.0 March 5th 2020

As promised when releasing 1.0, we’ve tried our best to keep the API stable. We think most designs will continue to compile with this new version, although special care needs to be taken when using:

  • Use inline blackboxes. Instead of taking a single HDL, inline primitives now take multiple. For example, InlinePrimitive VHDL ".." must now be written as InlinePrimitive [VHDL] "..".

  • Use the Enum instance for BitVector, Index, Signed, or Unsigned, as they now respect their maxBound. See #1089.

On top of that, we’ve added a number of new features:

  • makeTopEntity: Template Haskell function for generating TopEntity annotations. See the documentation on Haddock for more information.

  • Clash.Explicit.SimIO: ((System)Verilog only) I/O actions that can be translated to HDL I/O. See the documentation on Haddock for more information.

  • Clash.Class.AutoReg: A smart register that improves the chances of synthesis tools inferring clock-gated registers, when used. See the documentation on Haddock for more information.

The full list of changes follows. Happy hacking!

  • New features (API):

    • Clash.Class.Parity type class replaces Prelude odd and even functions due to assumptions that don’t hold for Clash specific numerical types, see #970.
    • NFDataX.ensureSpine, see #748
    • makeTopEntity Template Haskell function for generating TopEntity annotations intended to cover the majority of use cases. Generation failures should either result in an explicit error, or a valid annotation of an empty PortProduct. Any discrepancy between the shape of generated annotations and the shape of the Clash compiler is a bug. See #795. Known limitations:
      • Type application (excluding Signals and :::) is best effort:
      • Data types with type parameters will work if the generator can discover a single relevant constructor after attempting type application.
      • Arbitrary explicit clock/reset/enables are supported, but only a single HiddenClockResetEnable constraint is supported.
      • Data/type family support is best effort.
    • Added Bundle ((f :*: g) a) instance
    • Added NFDataX CUShort instance
    • Clash’s internal type family solver now recognizes AppendSymbol and CmpSymbol
    • Added Clash.Magic.suffixNameFromNat: can be used in cases where suffixName is too slow
    • Added Clash.Class.AutoReg. Improves the chances of synthesis tools inferring clock-gated registers, when used. See #873.
    • Clash.Magic.suffixNameP, Clash.Magic.suffixNameFromNatP: enable prefixing of name suffixes
    • Added Clash.Magic.noDeDup: can be used to instruct Clash to /not/ share a function between multiple branches
    • A BitPack a constraint now implies a KnownNat (BitSize a) constraint, so you won’t have to add it manually anymore. See #942.
    • Clash.Explicit.SimIO: ((System)Verilog only) I/O actions that can be translated to HDL I/O; useful for generated test benches.
    • Export Clash.Explicit.Testbench.assertBitVector #888
    • Add Clash.Prelude.Testbench.assertBitVector to achieve feature parity with Clash.Explicit.Testbench. #891
    • Add Clash.XException.NFDataX.ensureSpine #803
    • Add Clash.Class.BitPack.bitCoerceMap #798
    • Add Clash.Magic.deDup: instruct Clash to force sharing an operator between multiple branches of a case-expression
    • InlinePrimitive can now support multiple backends simultaneously #425
    • Add Clash.XException.hwSeqX: render declarations of an argument, but don’t assign it to a result signal
    • Add Clash.Signal.Bundle.TaggedEmptyTuple: allows users to emulate the pre-1.0 behavior of “Bundle ()”. See #1100
  • New features (Compiler):

    • #961: Show -fclash-* Options in clash --show-options
  • New internal features:

    • #918: Add X-Optimization to normalization passes (-fclash-aggressive-x-optimization)
    • #821: Add DebugTry: print name of all tried transformations, even if they didn’t succeed
    • #856: Add -fclash-debug-transformations: only print debug info for specific transformations
    • #911: Add ‘RenderVoid’ option to blackboxes
    • #958: Prefix names of inlined functions
    • #947: Add “Clash.Core.TermLiteral”
    • #887: Show nicer error messages when failing in TH code
    • #884: Teach reduceTypeFamily about AppendSymbol and CmpSymbol
    • #784: Print whether Id is global or local in ppr output
    • #781: Use naming contexts in register names
    • #1061: Add ‘usedArguments’ to BlackBoxHaskell blackboxes
  • Fixes issues:

    • #974: Fix indirect shadowing in reduceNonRepPrim
    • #964: SaturatingNum instance of Index now behaves correctly when the size of the index overflows an Int.
    • #810: Verilog backend now correctly specifies type of BitVector 1
    • #811: Improve module load behavior in clashi
    • #439: Template Haskell splices and TopEntity annotations can now be used in clashi
    • #662: Clash will now constant specialize partially constant constructs
    • #700: Check work content of expression in cast before warning users. Should eliminate a lot of (superfluous) warnings about “specializing on non work-free cast”s.
    • #837: Blackboxes will now report clearer error messages if they’re given unexpected arguments.
    • #869: PLL is no longer duplicated in Blinker.hs example
    • #749: Clash’s dependencies now all work with GHC 8.8, allowing clash-{prelude,lib,ghc} to be compiled from Hackage soon.
    • #871: RTree Bundle instance is now properly lazy
    • #895: VHDL type error when generating Maybe (Vec 2 (Signed 8), Index 1)
    • #880: Custom bit representations can now be used on product types too
    • #976: Prevent shadowing in Clash’s core evaluator
    • #1007: Can’t translate domain tagType.Errors.IfStuck…
    • #967: Naming registers disconnects their output
    • #990: Internal shadowing bug results in incorrect HDL
    • #945: Rewrite rules for Vec Applicative Functor
    • #919: Clash generating invalid Verilog after Vec operations #919
    • #996: Ambiguous clock when using ClearOnReset and resetGen together
    • #701: Unexpected behaviour with the Synthesize annotation
    • #694: Custom bit representation error only with VHDL
    • #347: topEntity synthesis fails due to insufficient type-level normalisation
    • #626: Missing Clash.Explicit.Prelude definitions
    • #960: Blackbox Error Caused by Simple map
    • #1012: Case-let doesn’t look through ticks
    • #430: Issue warning when not compiled with executable-dynamic: True
    • #374: Clash.Sized.Fixed: fromInteger and fromRational don’t saturate correctly
    • #836: Generate warning when toInteger blackbox drops MSBs
    • #1019: Clash breaks on constants defined in terms of GHC.Natural.gcdNatural
    • #1025: inlineCleanupwill not produce empty letrecs anymore
    • #1030: bindConstantVar will bind (workfree) constructs
    • #1034: Error (10137): object “pllLock” on lhs must have a variable data type
    • #1046: Don’t confuse term/type namespaces in ‘lookupIdSubst’
    • #1041: Nested product types incorrectly decomposed into ports
    • #1058: Prevent substitution warning when using type equalities in top entities
    • #1033: Fix issue where Clash breaks when using Clock/Reset/Enable in product types in combination with Synthesize annotations
    • #1075: Removed superfluous constraints on ‘maybeX’ and ‘maybeIsX’
    • #1085: Suggest exporting topentities if they can’t be found in a module
    • #1065: Report polymorphic topEntities as errors
    • #1089: Respect maxBound in Enum instances for BitVector,Index,Signed,Unsigned
  • Fixes without issue reports:

    • Fix bug in rnfX defined for Down (baef30e)
    • Render numbers inside gensym (bc76f0f)
    • Report blackbox name when encountering an error in ‘setSym’ (#858)
    • Fix blackbox issues causing Clash to generate invalid HDL (#865)
    • Treat types with a zero-width custom bit representation like other zero-width constructs (#874)
    • TH code for auto deriving bit representations now produces nicer error messages (7190793)
    • Adds ‘–enable-shared-executables’ for nix builds; this should make Clash run much faster (#894)
    • Custom bit representations can now mark fields as zero-width without crashing the compiler (#898)
    • Throw an error if there’s data left to parse after successfully parsing a valid JSON construct (#904)
    • Data.gfoldl is now manually implemented, in turn fixing issues with gshow (#933)
    • Fix a number of issues with blackbox implementations (#934)
    • Don’t inline registers with non-constant clock and reset (#998)
    • Inline let-binders called [dsN | N <- [1..]] (#992)
    • ClockGens use their name at the Haskell level #827
    • Render numbers inside gensym #809
    • Don’t overwrite existing binders when specializing #790
    • Deshadow in ‘caseCase’ #1067
    • Deshadow in ‘caseLet’ and ‘nonRepANF’ #1071
  • Deprecations & removals:

    • Removed support for GHC 8.2 (#842)
    • Removed support for older cabal versions, only Cabal >=2.2 supported (#851)
    • Reset and Enable constructors are now only exported from Clash.Signal.Internal
    • #986 Remove -fclash-allow-zero-width flag

1.0.0 September 3rd 2019

0.99.3 July 28th 2018

  • Fixes bugs:

    • Evaluator recognizes Bit literals #329
    • Use existential type-variables in context of GADT pattern match
    • Do not create zero-bit temporary variables in generated HDL
    • Use correct arguments in nested primitives #323
    • Zero-constructor data type needs 0 bits #238
    • Create empty component when result needs 0 bits
    • Evaluator performs BigNat arithmetic
  • Features:

    • Bundle and BitPack instances up to and including 62-tuples
    • Handle undefined writes to RAM properly
    • Handle undefined clock enables properly

0.99.1 May 12th 2018

  • Allow ~NAME[N] tag inside ~GENSYM[X]
  • Support HDL record selector generation #313
  • InlinePrimitive support: specify HDL primitives inline with Haskell code
  • Support for ghc-typelits-natnormalise-0.6.1
  • Lift instances for TopEntity and PortName
  • InlinePrimitive support: specify HDL primitives inline with Haskell code

0.99 March 31st 2018

  • New features:
    • Major API overhaul: check the migration guide at the end of Clash.Tutorial
    • New features:
      • Explicit clock and reset arguments
      • Rename CLaSH to Clash
      • Implicit/Hidden clock and reset arguments using a combination of reflection and ImplicitParams.
      • Large overhaul of TopEntity annotations
      • PLL and other clock sources can now be instantiated using regular functions: Clash.Intel.ClockGen and Clash.Xilinx.ClockGen.
      • DDR registers:
        • Generic/ASIC: Clash.Explicit.DDR
        • Intel: Clash.Intel.DDR
        • Xilinx: Clash.Intel.Xilinx
    • Bit is now a newtype instead of a type synonym and will be mapped to a HDL scalar instead of an array of one (e.g std_logic instead of std_logic_vector(0 downto 0))
    • Hierarchies with multiple synthesisable boundaries by allowing more than one function in scope to have a Synthesize annotation.
      • Local caching of functions with a Synthesize annotation
    • Bit type is mapped to a HDL scalar type (e.g. std_logic in VHDL)
    • Improved name preservation
    • Zero-bit values are filtered out of the generated HDL
    • Improved compile-time computation
  • Many bug fixes

Older versions

Check out: