Describing platforms¶

Renode uses a text-based format to describe platforms. Platform description files typically have the .repl extension, but this is not a requirement.

The broad description of the format and its grammar is available in the platform-description-format section. Here we present the basic usage and most common scenarios.

Defining peripherals¶

To add a peripheral, you need to know its type, choose its name and the registration point. Most peripherals will be registered on the sysbus - a peripheral that is always available and does not have to be explicitly defined.

The type name has to indicate the class of the peripheral model. This has to be a full name with a namespace, but the default namespace, Antmicro.Renode.Peripherals, can be omitted.

For example, to create a UART object of type Antmicro.Renode.Peripherals.UART.MiV_CoreUART, connected to the system bus at 0x80000000, use:

uart0: UART.MiV_CoreUART @ sysbus 0x80000000

Some peripherals, like the mentioned UART, need parameters to be constructed. The REPL format allows you to set the constructor parameters and properties of the peripheral model. They are placed below the declaration, with four spaces of indentation:

uart0: UART.MiV_CoreUART @ sysbus 0x80000000
    clockFrequency: 66000000

Constructor parameters begin with a lower case letter, and properties with an upper case letter.

Connecting peripherals¶

In the example above the uart0 peripheral was connected to the system bus at a specific address. It is possible, however, to connect peripherals to other buses as well, like I2C or SPI, to a GPIO controller, etc.

For example, to connect a temperature sensor to an I2C controller called i2c0 at 0x80, type:

sensor: Sensors.SI70xx @ i2c0 0x80

Peripherals can also be connected via GPIOs or interrupts. Renode treats these signals similarly, and allows you to create a connection with the -> operator.

To connect a timer to the 31-st interrupt on the plic interrupt controller, run:

timer: Timers.MiV_CoreTimer @ sysbus 0x1000000
    -> plic @ 31

Including files¶

You can include an existing REPL file in your platform with the using keyword.

The path will be looked up in each of the directories on the Monitor’s internal PATH, which is editable with the path command. By default, the PATH contains the Renode installation directory, so the platform files distributed with Renode can be included like so:

using "platforms/cpus/miv.repl"

You can also provide an absolute path:

using "/tmp/platform.repl"

Or a path relative to the REPL file that contains the using statement:

using "./platform.repl"
using "../other/platform.repl"

using "D:\\platforms\\platform1.repl"