Installing IP blocks

[Risto97]

Sometimes an IP block needs to be delivered without SoCMake build scripts and without the targets that generate HDL files.
Similar to the concept of installation of C++ executable and libraries in CMake, it should be replicated to SoCMake IP blocks

Currently, there is copy_rtl_files implementation that copies all the generated and source files into a new directory.
It would be nice to have an implementation that is more consistent with CMake

[benoitdenkinger]

@Risto97 CMake install step is for software, but in our case (HW) we use the install step to export the design (export not in the CMake sense), correct?

If that is the case, is there support in CMake to also export the various compilation options (e.g., defines, flags)? The scenario would be a project using verilator with SoCMake but someone wants to extract the design (HW+SW) and compile it using its own flow. Is there a native support to export the compilation options used on the original project?

[Risto97]

Hello @benoitdenkinger ,

Yes, its possible.
In CMake, you can export any property of a target if you mark it with EXPORT_PROPERTIES.

So basically to export compile options we can do somthing like this:

set_property(TARGET ${IP_LIB} APPEND PROPERTY EXPORT_PROPERTIES VERILOG_verilator_COMPILE_OPTIONS)

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The installation can be used for different use cases.
One interesting one is the IP encryption or obfuscation.

In case you want to encrypt your RTL files, so that the customers cannot have access to the RTL but to an encrypted e.g. questasim simulation database.

You can do something like:

modelsim_encrypt(${IP)
install(${IP})

When the customer imports this IP block, they would have the IP object defined, but there are no RTL files but rather the questasim encrypted database, so they do something like:

find_package(adder_ip)
modelsim(${IP})

You can think of various other use cases for installation

[benoitdenkinger]

Ok, thanks, I'll try this EXPORT_PROPERTY feature.

Very interesting and useful case this IP encryption indeed.