# Description
BlackParrot aims to be the default Linux-capable, cache-coherent, RV64GC multicore used by the world.

# Getting started
[Getting Started](GETTING_STARTED.md)

# Project Status
The next release of BlackParrot, v 1.0, is coming in October 2019, and will contain support for 1 to 24-way cache coherent multicore, and include baseline user and privilege mode functionality and run Linux.

A 14-nm BlackParrot multicore chip was taped out in July 2019.

# BlackParrot repository overview
- **bp_fe/** contains the front-end (FE) of BlackParrot, responsible for speculative fetching of instructions.
- **bp_be/** contains the back-end (BE) of BlackParrot, responsible for atomically executing instructions, as well as logically controlling the FE.
- **bp_me/** contains the memory-end (ME) of BlackParrot, responsible for servicing memory/IO requests as well as maintaining cache coherence between BlackParrot cores. 
- **bp_top/** contains configurations of FE, BE, and ME components. For instance, tile components and NOC assemblies.
- **bp_common/** contains the interface components which connect FE, BE and ME. FE, BE, ME may depend on bp\_common, but not each other.
- **external/** contains submodules corresponding to tooling that BlackParrot depends upon, such as the riscv-gnu-toolchain and Verilator.


# BlackParrot software developer guide
Coming soon!

# BlackParrot interface specification
BlackParrot is an aggresively modular design: communication between the components is performed over a set of narrow
interfaces. The interfaces are designed to allow implementations of the FE, BE or ME to change
independently of one another.

[Interface specification](docs/interface_specification.md)

# BlackParrot microarchitectural specification
Coming soon!

# BlackParrot Manifesto
- Be TINY
    - When deliberating between two options, consider the one with least hardware cost/complexity.
- Be Modular
    - Prevent tight coupling between modules by designing latency insenstive interfaces.
- Be Friendly
    - Combat NIH, welcome external contributions and strive for infrastructure agnosticism.

# How to contribute
[Contribution Guide](CONTRIBUTING.md)

NOTE: BlackParrot will be licensed during v 1.0 release. Until then, we are happy to discuss BlackParrot over GitHub Issues, but are unable to accept external PRs.

# BlackParrot style guide
[BlackParrot Style Guide](STYLE_GUIDE.md)

# CI
Below is the current status of BlackParrot CI builds. Upon commit to the listed branch, a Verilator-based regression consisting of full-system riscv-tests, beebs, elaborability tests and module level tests is run and checked for correctness.

NOTE: Work is in progress to continuously verify synthesizability and PPA.

master: [![Gitlab
CI](https://gitlab.com/black-parrot/pre-alpha-release/badges/master/build.svg)](https://gitlab.com/black-parrot/pre-alpha-release/pipelines) 

dev: [![Gitlab CI](https://gitlab.com/black-parrot/pre-alpha-release/badges/dev/build.svg)](https://gitlab.com/black-parrot/pre-alpha-release/pipelines)