3.14. NVDLA

NVDLA is an open-source deep learning accelerator developed by NVIDIA. The NVDLA is attached as a TileLink peripheral so it can be used as a component within the Rocket Chip SoC generator. The accelerator by itself exposes an AXI memory interface (or two if you use the “Large” configuration), a control interface, and an interrupt line. The main way to use the accelerator in Chipyard is to use the NVDLA SW repository that was ported to work on FireSim Linux. However, you can also use the accelerator in baremetal simulations (refer to tests/nvdla.c).

For more information on both the HW architecture and the SW, please visit their website.

3.14.1. NVDLA Software with FireMarshal

Located at software/nvdla-workload is a FireMarshal-based workload to boot Linux with the proper NVDLA drivers. Refer to that README.md for more information on how to run a simulation.