retroSoC/docs/lp-hp-architecture.md

Mini Product LP/HP Architecture

The frozen GA2D specification defines the phased GA2D delivery. Phase 2 expands the implemented platform to nine AXI64 masters with seven-bit global IDs and Resource Controller entry 8. Phase 5 activates its dedicated PCLK-to-HP AXI64/ID3 bridge as a direct single-job private-AXI64 2D engine controlled at APB4_GA2D, with resource-owned IRQ. Existing hart, memory, and source identities remain fixed.

Product contract

Every committed MINI_MODE=PRODUCT profile instantiates two fixed harts:

Property	LP management	HP application
Core	Hazard3	generated VexiiRiscv
Hart ID	0	1
ISA	profile RV32I/RV32IM	RV32IMAFDC + Zicbom, S/U mode, Sv32
Reset clock	REF24 at 24 MHz	external 72 MHz safe clock
Role	boot, control, diagnostics, recovery	high-throughput application/Linux
JTAG	reset owner	selectable while HP is held in reset

The product generator reports USER_CORE_COUNT=0, USER_IP_COUNT=0, and EXTENSION_COUNT=2. The former C0-C3 cores and selectable user-IP designs are available only through configs/cluster/mini-mpw.mk; they are not part of the product address, interrupt, or lifecycle ABI.

There is no hardware cache coherency. Firmware and operating systems must use explicit ownership, fences, and cache maintenance for shared buffers.

Clock and reset domains

soc_clock_reset_subsystem is the product clock/reset implementation behind the compatibility rcu wrapper.

Domain	Root	Implemented policy
AON	dedicated REF24 input	fixed 24 MHz; PLL/clock/pad control and 1 MHz tick
LP	REF24 or divided HP	reset default REF24; AUTO/MANUAL division never exceeds 72 MHz
HP	EXT72 or PLL	reset default EXT72; generic model supports 72-240 MHz in 24 MHz steps
PCLK	LP generated clock	/1, /2, /4, /8, /16; APB register banks
memory	EXT72 /2	stable 36 MHz root exported for protocol-engine migration
audio	dedicated input	independent audio/RTC/watchdog engine clock
DVP, ULPI, JTAG	external functional clocks	dedicated CDC and reset contracts

Root selection uses Common safe_clock_mux; integer division uses Common clock dividers. The PCLK divider is reset from AON so generated-clock startup cannot depend on its own downstream reset. clock_reset_domains.json records reset synchronizers and the approved CDC primitives.

pll_rcu_controller runs from AON and implements validate, quiesce, LP park, EXT72 safe selection, PLL apply, lock-low observation, lock qualification, PLL selection, LP restore, response, and fail-safe states. It blocks new HP traffic while switching and falls back to EXT72 on timeout or runtime lock loss. Fault state is sticky until explicitly cleared.

The generic functional PLL maps selectors 0-7 to 72, 96, 120, 144, 168, 192, 216, and 240 MHz from REF24. The ICS55 hard-macro wrapper accepts selector 0 only; other selectors fail safe. This is a digital integration contract, not PLL jitter, PVT, or clock-tree signoff.

Control plane

Hazard3 keeps a direct 32-bit control path:

Hazard3 -> AHB-Lite adapter -> LP AXI32 control fabric
        -> LP/PCLK bridge -> APB4 peripheral and system register banks

HP uncached MMIO is downsized to AXI32 and crosses HP to LP through axi4_async_bridge. Product access control rejects HP writes to root SYSCTRL, watchdog, and GPIO administration windows with SLVERR; Hazard3 retains full management access.

axi4_mgmt_router keeps APB/control addresses on this path and routes every memory window through an LP-to-HP data gateway. Hazard3 therefore shares the same memory admission, inactive-pad, ACL, and fault path as HP and DMA.

Native AXI64 data plane

soc_data_plane contains a 9-master, 6-target AXI64 crossbar. Read and write channels progress independently, and different source IDs may be active against the same or different targets. The same source ID is blocked until completion. SRAM and SDRAM accept four reads and two writes; serial memories and the error target accept one per direction. Responses route by the global-ID master prefix, and a Common FIFO preserves write-data order where AXI4 W has no ID.

Master	Entry path
HP I-cache	native AXI64, ID prefix 0
HP D-cache	native AXI64, ID prefix 1
central DMA	PCLK-to-HP async bridge, AXI32-to-64 upsizer
I/O gateway A	USB2 and SDIO0, then PCLK-to-HP CDC and upsizer
I/O gateway B	SDIO1 and SPI-SD, then PCLK-to-HP CDC and upsizer
LP data gateway	Hazard3 memory traffic, LP-to-HP CDC and upsizer
JPEG	PCLK-to-HP AXI64 async bridge, ID prefix 6; one normal read and one normal write credit, class 8
EXT-H	PCLK-to-HP AXI64 async bridge, ID prefix 7
GA2D	dedicated PCLK-to-HP AXI64/ID3 async bridge; direct single-job FILL/COPY/CONVERT/BLEND engine

Targets are SRAM, SDRAM, QPI PSRAM, OPI/HyperBus PSRAM, XPI/flash, and a finite-latency error slave. SRAM is a native AXI64, seven-bit-ID target in HP and stripes each beat across two existing 32-bit technology macros. SDRAM, QPI, OPI, and XPI cross directly from HP to the stable memory domain as AXI64 and are downsized only beside their current 32-bit controller frontends. Serial payload therefore does not consume LP fabric bandwidth. Inactive QPI/OPI windows return SLVERR.

Every memory target has a queued guard. SRAM/SDRAM queue depth matches their credits. Target stalls are bounded by target-specific timeouts; a pre-accept stall receives synthetic SLVERR, while an accepted timeout flushes the CDC boundary, completes the original burst with SLVERR, and permanently isolates that target until hard reset so a late response cannot contaminate new traffic.

All async AXI channels use Common coordinated warm-flush FIFOs and expose a source-domain epoch. HP shutdown holds a flush request until every bridge sees it, then waits for bridge recovery before resetting the core.

data_plane_fault_cdc carries HP fault metadata to PCLK through Common's one-entry async_reqack mailbox. The crossbar and target guards hold a valid, stable 44-bit fault payload until its ready handshake, applying backpressure before another reportable fault can retire. Reset in either mailbox domain aborts an item already accepted by the mailbox; a unilateral PCLK reset keeps an unaccepted HP-source event backpressured until the link is released.

Memory and shared pads

Product profiles instantiate on-chip SRAM, SDRAM, QPI, OPI/HyperBus, and XPI integration paths. The on-chip SRAM product size is 32 KiB. ICS55 uses two 16 KiB SRAM_4096X32_M8_BW macros; committed ICS55 regression profiles keep the SRAM interface/macro disabled until commercial models are supplied locally.

QPI and OPI share GPIO21-31 through memory_pad_mux. AON retains MEM_PAD_MODE and its lock across LP/HP changes. Reset selects QPI to preserve the established boot flow. The inactive controller receives safe input values, its clock/chip-select/output-enable path is inactive, and mapped data access returns SLVERR. The first product implementation permits boot-time selection only, not a live protocol switch.

Extensions

Product Mini has fixed control windows:

Slot	Window	IRQ	Data path
EXT-L 0	0x20008000-0x20008FFF	LP IRQ 27	APB4 only
EXT-H 1	0x20009000-0x20009FFF	LP IRQ 28	APB4 plus AXI64 data master

Each slot exposes identification, version, capability, owner/lock, lifecycle, status, timeout, first fault, fault address, and request count. EXT-H adds read and write ACL ranges that are enforced at data-plane admission. The reference EXT-H DMA performs aligned 64-bit memory copies with a partial final strobe. Its IRQ is delivered to LP IRQ 28 or HP PLIC source 3 according to owner, never both. Software discovers it through <retrosoc/hal/extension.h>.

The Resource Controller at 0x2000_A000 is the central owner and IRQ authority for DMA, USB2, SDIO0/1, SPI-SD, EXT-H, JPEG, APU, and the P5 GA2D engine. Resource 8 routes its raw IRQ exclusively to LP vector 32/external ordinal 30 or HP PLIC source 11 according to owner, while its associated AXI bridge carries only that engine's direct FILL/COPY/CONVERT/BLEND traffic. The existing HP smoke workload remains a FILL/COPY subset; it is not P5 composition or cache coherency evidence. Handoff requires idle, owner lock is sticky, and rejected handoffs raise LP IRQ 29. APU index 7 routes exclusively to LP IRQ31 or HP PLIC source10. The controller also carries the AON cache request/clean acknowledgement used before HP drain. See ip/resource-controller.md. Resource 8 qualifies its HP block acknowledgement with a fresh synchronized source-quiesced state, so an old idle sample cannot hand off a WVALID-before-AWVALID write.

The root-only Fabric Monitor at 0x2000_B000 records per-master and per-target traffic, wait, promotion, credit high-water, timeout, isolation, flush, and sticky first-fault information. Its APB path crosses PCLK to HP so the counters observe the native fabric directly. See ip/fabric-monitor.md.

The old APB4_USER_IP window is a read-only compatibility/capability window. Product writes to CORESEL, IPSEL, USER_CORE_RESET, or USER_CORE_STATUS return APB PSLVERR; legacy HAL mutators return RS_ENOTSUP.

Configuration and local ICS55 models

Committed configs/ci/ics55.mk and configs/cluster/ics55.mk deliberately set both PLL and SRAM to NO. configs/local/ics55.example.mk documents an ignored local profile with PLL, SRAM interface, SRAM macro, and 32 KiB enabled. LOCAL_RTL_FILES injects commercial SRAM and PLL simulation models into only that generated variant filelist. configs/local/*.mk and *.sv are ignored, so absolute commercial paths are never tracked.

Evidence boundary

Behavioral RTL, firmware, directed data-plane/lifecycle/clock tests, manifest parity, and quality checks are the evidence for this implementation. HP stop implements a pre-drain cache request/ACK window, drain, coordinated flush, actual-release status, and bounded forced reset. Vexii implements 64-byte Zicbom; software still owns shared-range selection, and a forced reset cannot preserve dirty cache data when the ACK times out. It must not be called cache coherent, power isolated, timing closed, CDC/RDC signed off, or silicon-qualified. Synthesis, netlist simulation, STA, MMMC, clock-tree, DFT, and analogue PLL qualification are separate gates.