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scripts: load CLKGATE_MAP_FILE as lib and techmap it #2439

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widlarizer
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The main idea is that if you use yosys clockgate to map ICGs to OPENROAD_CLKGATE, you need a blackbox to be present, which is missing at that time since currently it's loaded with -defer. That leads to check failures due to missing cells after abc which this PR fixes. Credit for the idea goes to @povik

@maliberty
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We are not currently using clockgate so why does this PR lead to failures?

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povik commented Oct 10, 2024

Looks like the synthesis netlist is chaotically altered and that propagates into some designs not meeting QoR limits.

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Why is there a difference in the netlist versus what we get without this PR?

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povik commented Oct 10, 2024

Different identifiers inserted by techmap -map $::env(CLKGATE_MAP_FILE) vs what we previously got when the intermediate clock gating cell was part of the design hierarchy. This can affect ordering of PIs/POs as the design is loaded into abc, and from there abc can make different mapping choices.

I think those designs affected might be those which instantiate OPENROAD_CLKGATE, I am not sure.

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With yosys and openroad built from source, I ran test/test_helper.sh swerv_wrapper nangate45 locally on this PR. I couldn't reproduce the routing failure of that particular design. Running yosys command stat on 1_synth.v on this PR vs master results in the following logs:

swerv-master.txt
swerv-pr.txt

They show a 3% increase in cell count and 8% increase in wire bits. Most modules experience no change or minor decrease/increase in cells / wire bits, but ifu_bp_ctl goes from 5.1k wire bits to 8.2k, ifu_aln_ctl goes from 5.7k to 7.6k, ifu from 5.4k to 6.6k. Looking at their cell stats it looks like those modules at this PR use fewer _X2 cells and more cells overall. The most extreme isolated cell type is DFFR_X1 in ifu_bp_ctl going from 519 instances to 1507. This is the only DFFR_* cell type used in both synthesis results. Looking into it.

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povik commented Oct 11, 2024

@maliberty For the nangate45/swerv design something else is happening.

In the design OPENROAD_CLKGATE is used for functional purposes (see e.g. the rvdffe_WIDTH32 module in the sources: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/The-OpenROAD-Project/OpenROAD-flow-scripts/refs/heads/master/flow/designs/src/swerv/swerv_wrapper.sv2v.v), but for NANGATE45 the clock gating cell is implemented as a feedthrough connection, so the design is being miscompiled on that platform.

Before the PR the feedthrough connection was inserted before equivalent flip-flops would have a chance to get merged, which would also happen for flip-flops with the same data input and the same clock but different enable (since the enable distinction was lost). After the PR the implementation of OPENROAD_CLKGATE is applied later, so this no longer happens.

This can explain what @widlarizer observed

The most extreme isolated cell type is DFFR_X1 in ifu_bp_ctl going from 519 instances to 1507.

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