Lab3 local environment guide

This guide is an additional reference for SISI students and for SIST students who prefer not to use the cloud environment.

You can complete Lab3 on a personal computer or another Linux machine. On Windows, we recommend Ubuntu 24.04 LTS in WSL2. The commands below use Ubuntu or Debian; other Linux distributions provide equivalent packages. Lab3 does not require a GPU.

Windows setup

In an administrator PowerShell, install WSL and Ubuntu 24.04 LTS:

wsl --install -d Ubuntu-24.04

Restart if prompted, open Ubuntu, and create a Linux user account. See the Microsoft WSL installation guide if you need help. Run the remaining commands in the Ubuntu terminal. On a Linux machine, start with the next section.

Required tools

Verilator 5.020 or later, for RTL simulation.
GNU Make and a C++ compiler such as g++, to build the simulation executable.
Python 3 (recommend 3.11), for test-vector generation and result checking. You can use conda or uv to manage your pkgs.

On Ubuntu or Debian, install the packages with:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential

For Verilator installation, you can refer to the installation script under ./scirpts/

Check the installed tools:

verilator --version
make --version
g++ --version
python3 --version

If your chosen Python executable has a different name, pass it to Make, for example: make test PYTHON=python3.11. If you use a Conda or uv environment, activate it first so that python3 refers to that environment.

Run Lab3

after completeing your TODO, you can have a check using make target:

make test

See README.md for the lab requirements and individual PE and array checks.

Optional waveform tools

GTKWave displays VCD waveforms. Icarus Verilog (iverilog and vvp) is an alternative simulator, but the supplied Makefile uses Verilator. Neither tool is required for make test. To install them on Ubuntu or Debian:

sudo apt install gtkwave iverilog

To generate VCD files with the supplied testbenches, enable Verilator's --trace option and define ENABLE_TRACE when compiling. GTKWave requires a graphical environment; on WSL, see Microsoft's Linux GUI application guide.