The only use for the clocker attribute and the AstVar::isUsedClock that
is actually necessary today for correctness is to mark top level inputs
of --lib-create blocks as being (or driving) a clock signal. Correctness
of --lib-create (and hence hierarchical blocks) actually used to depend
on having the right optimizations eliminate intermediate clocks (e.g.:
V3Gate), when the top level port was not used directly in a sensitivity
list, or marking top level signals manually via --clk or the clocker
attribute. However V3Sched::partition already needs to trace through the
logic to figure out what signals might drive a sensitivity list, so it
can very easily mark all top level inputs as such.
In this patch we remove the AstVar::attrClocker and AstVar::isUsedClock
attributes, and replace them with AstVar::isPrimaryClock, automatically
set by V3Sched::partition. This eliminates all need for manual
annotation so we are deprecating the --clk/--no-clk options and the
clocker/no_clocker attributes.
This also eliminates the opportunity for any further mis-optimization
similar to #6453.
Regarding the other uses of the removed AstVar attributes:
- As of 5.000, initial edges are triggered via a separate mechanism
applied in V3Sched, so the use in V3EmitCFunc.cpp is redundant
- Also as of 5.000, we can handle arbitrary sensitivity expressions, so
the restriction on eliminating clock signals in V3Gate is unnecessary
- Since the recent change when Dfg is applied after V3Scope, it does
perform the equivalent of GateClkDecomp, so we can delete that pass.
These are no longer required for correct scheduling. They are still
accepted for backward compatibility, but have no effect on simulation
and are dropped in the front-end. Also removed the then redundant
AstAlwaysPublic class.
Fixes#6442
Wilson Snyder
Geza Lore
Bartłomiej Chmiel
Artur Bieniek
Ryszard Rozak