[libre-riscv-dev] number of stages just increased to 6 per pipe-stage

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

hi jacob,

+        # TODO (depends on how many RS's we want)
+        #n_comb_stages = width // (2 * log2_radix)  # 2 compute steps per stage
+        n_comb_stages = 2  # FIXME: switch back
+
         fraction_width = fmt.fraction_width

         # extra bits needed: guard + round
@@ -172,8 +176,6 @@ class FPDIVMuxInOut(ReservationStations):
         # the last stage
         cfg = DivPipeCoreConfig(fmt.width, fraction_width, log2_radix)

-        n_comb_stages = (cfg.n_stages + 1) // 2  # 2 compute steps per stage
-
         self.pspec.fpformat = fmt
         self.pspec.n_comb_stages = n_comb_stages
         self.pspec.core_config = cfg


what that's done is, well, you can see in the FPDIV32 pipeline, from
the attached: it's now *seven* combinatorial stages long (!!)

the number of combinatorial stages sets the "safe limit" for the gate
count.  if it's not a fixed quantity, then as the bitwidth increases,
so will the number of combinatorial stages chained together into a
single pipeline stage.

so, for FPDIV32, because n_comb_stages is set to the total number of
*required* stages divided by two, that will be *FOURTEEN*
combinatorial blocks jammed into each pipeline stage.

the change that you made specifies, by mistake, that the *entire
pipeline* must be no bigger than 2 deep.

l.
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