Toolchain
The NaplesPU toolchain is a collection of tools required to compile a NaplesPU executable application. It is based on the LLVM project leveraging on a custom version of the Clang Frontend and on a from-scratch implementation of the Backend. The toolchain comes with a modified version of LLD, an elf2hex tool to generate NaplesPU compatible memory images and lastly a custom version of the objdump tool for debuggingc purposes. A custom implementation of the libc libraries is provided.
The toolchain supports the compilation of C-based and OpenCL C kernels.
Contents
Building Toolchain on Ubuntu Linux environment
This section shows how to build the NaplesPU toolchain in an Ubuntu Linux environment. The following steps are still valid in any other Unix-based system despite package manager related differences.
Required Software
The NaplesPU toolchain installation relies on the following dependencies:
- Git
- GCC
- CMake
- Python 2.7
- libxml
- Zlib
- Bison
- Flex
- Libedit
- Swig
- ncurses libraries
- Ninja
The following terminal command may be used to install all required software:
$ sudo apt install libxml2-dev git cmake gcc g++ python bison flex zlib1g-dev swig python-dev libedit-dev libncurses5-dev ninja-build
Building Process
First, you have to obtain the source code from the official repository by typing the following command:
$ git clone https://github.com/AlessandroCilardo/NaplesPU-toolchain <clone_directory>
The repository contains a helper script, setup.sh to make easier the installation process. To build a new implementation of the NaplesPU toolchain just type:
$ ./setup.sh -n
This command starts the compilation process, installing the toolchain in Release Mode in /usr/local/llvm-npu.
If a debug version is required, add the -d flag to setup.sh. You can also choose the number of threads for the compilation process, by using the -t=<number_of_threads> parameter.
At the end of the compilation process, libraries are required to be linked to the installation folder:
$ ./setup.sh -l
Now, you can use the toolchain to build your own application.
The NaplesPU LLVM Structure
The NaplesPU toolchain relies on the LLVM project, version 7.0, providing a custom implementation of its libraries in order to make possible the generation of NaplesPU kernels.
Clang is the compiler frontend for NaplesPU, extended to handle the token-recognition of custom intrinsic functions.
LLVM core libraries are used to implement a custom backend for NaplesPU, to manage the code lowering on the target device.
LLD is adapted to match NaplesPU architecture requirements for linking.
objdump is provided to disassemble and analyze the generated code.
elf2hex is a tool required for memory image generation.
Check the following links for detailed informations on how the toolchain is implemented.
- NaplesPU Clang Documentation
- NaplesPU LLVM Documentation
- NaplesPU LLD Linker Documentation
- NaplesPU Tools
- NaplesPU Libraries
