https://github.com/aaronc81/hiloz

https://github.com/aaronc81/hiloz

Last synced: 4 months ago
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• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/aaronc81/hiloz
• Owner: AaronC81
• Created: 2021-03-28T23:40:25.000Z (almost 5 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2021-04-07T22:48:59.000Z (almost 5 years ago)
• Last Synced: 2025-03-06T15:17:08.231Z (10 months ago)
• Language: Rust
• Size: 81.1 KB
• Stars: 0
• Watchers: 2
• Forks: 0
• Open Issues: 0
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md

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README

          
# Hiloz

Hiloz is a work-in-progress **digital system simulator**. Write a model in a

simple description language, run the simulator, and observe the state of your

system over time using a VCD-compatible wave viewer like

[GtkWave](http://gtkwave.sourceforge.net/).

```

define component Clock {

    pin out;

    var delay;

    constructor(period) {

        delay = period / 2;

    }

    script {

        loop {

            out <- !out;

            sleep(delay);

        }

    }

}

define component AndGate {

    pin a;

    pin b;

    pin c;

    script {

        loop {

            trigger;

            c <- a && b;

        }

    }

}

component clk1 = Clock(100);

component clk2 = Clock(70);

component and = AndGate();

connect(clk1.out, and.a);

connect(clk2.out, and.b);

```

![A digital waveform in GtkWave, showing the two clock output pins and gate output pin from the above model.](img/demo-wave.png)

## Goals

- A Sub-component system, to allow creating new component definitions from

  smaller building blocks.

- Seed the system with external input, allowing it to be used as a kind of

  electronic system debugger in combination with a logic analyzer.

- Allow embedded system firmware to be compiled with a Hiloz-provided stub HAL,

  running the firmware as an external program to add a microcontroller to your

  simulation.

## Is this an HDL?

The models do look rather similar to something like VHDL or Verilog, but this

isn't really an HDL. You can't synthesize it to an FPGA, and it aims to offer

more abstraction than would generally be possible in something that could target

hardware. 

## Is this a programming language?

Component definitions contain simple scripts in their `constructor` and `script`

blocks, but Hiloz isn't useful as a general-purpose programming language.

This is mainly down to its timing characteristics. In Python, `time.sleep(1000)`

would wait 1000 real-life seconds. In a Hiloz script, `sleep(1000)` will wait

1000 virtual time units as fast as your machine can do that.

## Documentation

There's not loads yet - sorry. If you're willing to tinker, the example above

showcases pretty much all of Hiloz's component description and scripting

features.

A script can do an infinite amount of processing in zero time. Time only passes

in the simulation when all scripts are _suspended_ - that is, they are

`sleep`ing or waiting for a `trigger` (any pin to change).

If you use VS Code, then you can install the

[vscode-highlight](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=fabiospampinato.vscode-highlight)

extension and grab the settings from `.vscode/settings.json` in this repo.

This will give some very basic syntax highlighting to your models.