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Tutorial: Hello, XLS!

So, you're interested in learning more about XLS and DSLX! Super! This tutorial is aimed at the very basics of getting started with XLS: getting your execution environment set up and running the most trivial of DSLX examples: printing the standard "Hello, world!" message to the terminal.

Yes, even though XLS is a hardware synthesis language, it still needs basic printing and string support, if only for debugging!

1. Installation and building

First things first: if you haven't yet done so, download the XLS sources from Github:

git clone https://github.com/google/xls.git xls

Next, build the project tree. XLS includes several dependencies that can take a while to build, so the first build may take a while; subsequent builds will be much shorter.

NOTE: If you don't have Bazel installed, install it: check the Bazel website for instructions. The other prerequisites are a C++20-compliant compiler toolchain and a Python3 interpreter; check with your distribution for installation instructions for both.

Start the XLS build by running:

bazel build -c opt xls/...

Then go get a cup of coffee. LLVM and Z3 are big projects, and will take a while to compile (but only the first time). Binary releases are coming soon: they'll avoid the need for long local compiles.

2. Create your module

With your toolchain built, let's get to coding! Open up an editor and create a file called hello_xls.x in your XLS checkout root directory. Populate it with the following:

fn hello_xls(hello_string: u8[11]) {
  trace!(hello_string);
}

Let's go over this, line-by-line:

  1. This first line declares a fn (fn) named "hello_xls". This function accepts an array of eleven characters (u8) called hello_string, and returns no value (the return type would be specified after the argument list's closing parenthesis and before the function-opening curly brace, if the function returned a value).
  2. This second line invokes the built-in trace! directive, passing it the function's input string, and throws away the result.

3. Say hello, XLS!

Let's run (and test) our code!

First thing, though, we should make sure our module parses and passes type checking. The fastest way to do that is via the DSLX "repl", conveniently called repl. You can run it against the above example with the command:

$ ./bazel-bin/xls/dev_tools/repl hello_xls.x

This tool first examines the specified module for language correctness, and will print an INVALID_ARGUMENT error if it fails to parse or typecheck. In that case, fix the errors and type :reload to try again. repl supports other features (IR, Verilog, and LLVM code examination), but those are outside the scope of this tutorial.

Once you have a parsing DSLX file, the best way to "smoke test" a module is via the DSLX interpreter. First, though, we need a test case for it to execute. Add the following to the end of your hello_xls.x file:

#[test]
fn hello_test() {
  hello_xls("Hello, XLS!")
}

Again, going line-by-line:

  1. This directive tells the interpreter that the next function is a test function, meaning that it shouldn't be passed down the synthesis chain and that it should be executed by the interpreter.
  2. This line declares the [test] function hello_test, which takes no args and returns no value.
  3. The only line in this function invokes the hello_xls function and passes it a chipper greeting.

With both the function and its corresponding test/driver in place, let's fire it up! Open a terminal and execute the following in the XLS checkout root directory:

$ ./bazel-bin/xls/dslx/interpreter_main hello_xls.x

You should see the following output:

[ RUN UNITTEST  ] hello_test
trace of hello_string @ hello.x:4:17-4:31: [72, 101, 108, 108, 111, 44, 32, 88, 76, 83, 33]
[            OK ]
[===============] 1 test(s) ran; 0 failed; 0 skipped.

Perfect! While this may not be what you initially expected, examine the output elements carefully: they correspond to the ASCII codes of the characters in "Hello, XLS!" When designing and debugging hardware, signals are more often numbers than strings, which is why they're represented as numbers here.

Congrats! You've written your first piece of hardware in DSLX! It might be more satisfying, though, if your hardware actually did anything. For that, see the next tutorial, float-to-int conversion.