verilator/docs
Geza Lore bc892deacc
Safely support non-overlapping blocking/non-blocking assignments (#6137)
The manual for the BLKANDNBLK warning describes that it is safe to
disable that error if the updated ranges are non-overlapping. This
however was not true (see the added t_nba_mixed_update* tests).

In this patch we change V3Delayed to use a new ShadowVarMasked
scheme for variables that have mixed blocking and non-blocking 
updates (or the FlagUnique scheme for unpacked variables), which
is in fact safe to use when the updated parts are non-overlapping.

Furthermore, mixed assignments are safe as far as scheduling is
concerned if either:

- They are to independent parts (bits/members/etc) (with this patch)
- Or if the blocking assignment is in clocked (or suspendable) logic.

The risk in scheduling is a race between the Post scheduled NBA
commit, and blocking assignments in combinational logic, which might
order incorrectly.

The second point highlights that we can handle stuff like this safely,
which is sometimes used in testbenches:

```systemverilog
always @(posedge clk) begin
    if ($time == 0) a = 0;
end

always @(posedge clk) begin
    if ($time > 0) a <= 2;
end
````

The only dangerous case is:

```systemverilog
always @(posedge clk) foo[idx] <= val;
assign foo[0] = bar;
```

Whit this patch, this will still resolve fine at run-time if 'idx' is
never zero, but might resolve incorrectly if 'idx' is zero.

With the above in mind, the BLKANDNBLK warning is now only issued if:

- We can't prove that the assignments are to non-overlapping bits
- And the blocking assignment is in combinational logic

These are the cases that genuinely require user attention to resolve.

With this patch, there are no more BLKANDNBLK warnings in the RTLMeter
designs.

Fixes #6122.
2025-06-28 20:45:45 +01:00
..
_static Fix Codacy warnings. No functional change. 2021-07-07 19:42:49 -04:00
bin Copyright year update. 2025-01-01 08:30:25 -05:00
gen Disable symbol from parser: Support redeclaring type as non-type; major parsing change (#2412). 2025-05-18 07:13:37 -04:00
guide Safely support non-overlapping blocking/non-blocking assignments (#6137) 2025-06-28 20:45:45 +01:00
.gitignore Spelling fixes. 2022-05-14 16:12:57 -04:00
CONTRIBUTING.rst Commentary 2025-02-15 00:58:14 -05:00
CONTRIBUTORS Add hint of the signed rhsval in oversized replication error (#6098) 2025-06-17 16:59:18 -07:00
Makefile Internals: Add format-make rule and standardize Makefile indents. No functional change intended. 2025-06-24 17:58:55 -04:00
README.rst Commentary: add docs/README.rst 2023-11-11 17:19:27 -05:00
internals.rst Add RTLMeter badge and note in internals docs (#6095) 2025-06-16 16:35:31 +01:00
security.rst Add security policy 2025-05-16 22:08:12 -04:00
spelling.txt Commentary: Changes update 2025-06-26 17:42:10 -04:00
verilated.dox Cleanup missing copyrights and those on simply copied files. No functional change. 2023-01-20 20:42:30 -05:00
xml.rst Copyright year update. 2025-01-01 08:30:25 -05:00

README.rst

Verilator Documentation
=======================

This folder contains sources for Verilator documentation.

For formatted documentation see:

- `Verilator README <https://github.com/verilator/verilator>`_

- `Verilator installation and package directory structure
  <https://verilator.org/install>`_

- `Verilator manual (HTML) <https://verilator.org/verilator_doc.html>`_,
  or `Verilator manual (PDF) <https://verilator.org/verilator_doc.pdf>`_

- `Subscribe to Verilator announcements
  <https://github.com/verilator/verilator-announce>`_

- `Verilator forum <https://verilator.org/forum>`_

- `Verilator issues <https://verilator.org/issues>`_