Initial Commit - Forked from PeakRDL-regblock @ a440cc19769069be831d267505da4f3789a26695

docs/architecture.rst

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+Register Block Architecture
+===========================
+
+The generated register block RTL is organized into several sections.
+Each section is automatically generated based on the source register model and
+is rendered into the output register block SystemVerilog RTL.
+
+.. figure:: diagrams/arch.png
+
+Although it is not completely necessary to know the inner workings of the
+generated RTL, it can be helpful to understand the implications of various
+exporter configuration options.
+
+
+CPU Interface
+-------------
+The CPU interface logic layer provides an abstraction between the
+application-specific bus protocol and the internal register file logic.
+This logic layer normalizes external CPU read & write transactions into a common
+:ref:`cpuif_protocol` that is used to interact with the register file.
+
+
+Address Decode
+--------------
+A common address decode operation is generated which computes individual access
+strobes for each software-accessible register in the design.
+This operation is performed completely combinationally.
+
+
+Field Logic
+-----------
+This layer of the register block implements the storage elements and state-change
+logic for every field in the design. Field state is updated based on address
+decode strobes from software read/write actions, as well as events from the
+hardware interface input struct.
+This section also assigns any hardware interface outputs.
+
+
+Readback
+--------
+The readback layer aggregates and reduces all readable registers into a single
+read response. During a read operation, the same address decode strobes are used
+to select the active register that is being accessed.
+This allows for a simple OR-reduction operation to be used to compute the read
+data response.
+
+For designs with a large number of software-readable registers, an optional
+fanin re-timing stage can be enabled. This stage is automatically inserted at a
+balanced point in the read-data reduction so that fanin and logic-levels are
+optimally reduced.
+
+.. figure:: diagrams/readback.png
+    :width: 65%
+    :align: center
+
+A second optional read response retiming register can be enabled in-line with the
+path back to the CPU interface layer. This can be useful if the CPU interface protocol
+used has a fully combinational response path, and the design's complexity requires
+this path to be retimed further.