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This guide will walk you through setting up your development environment for Tiny TPU. The project uses cocotb for testing, iverilog for simulation, and GTKwave for viewing waveforms.

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Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:
  • Python 3.7 or later
  • Git (for version control)
  • A package manager (Homebrew for MacOS, apt for Ubuntu/Linux)

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Platform-specific setup

# Create and activate a virtual environment
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

# Install cocotb
pip install cocotb

# Install iverilog using Homebrew
brew install iverilog

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GTKwave installation

On MacOS, you must build GTKwave from source. Other installation methods (like Homebrew) do not currently work correctly.

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Building GTKwave from source (MacOS only)

1

Download GTKwave source

Visit the GTKwave website or GitHub repository to download the latest source code.
2

Build and install

Follow the build instructions provided in the GTKwave source distribution.
3

Verify installation

gtkwave --version

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Installing GTKwave (Ubuntu/Linux)

On Ubuntu/Linux, GTKwave can be installed directly from the package manager: 
sudo apt install gtkwave

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Verify your installation

After completing the setup, verify that all tools are installed correctly: 
# Check cocotb
python -c "import cocotb; print(cocotb.__version__)"

# Check iverilog
iverilog -v

# Check GTKwave
gtkwave --version

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Project structure

Once your environment is set up, familiarize yourself with the project structure:
  • src/ - SystemVerilog source files for all modules
  • test/ - Cocotb test files and dump modules
  • waveforms/ - Generated VCD waveform files
  • sim_build/ - Simulation build artifacts
  • Makefile - Build and test automation

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Next steps

Adding modules

Learn how to add new modules to the Tiny TPU

Testing

Understand the testing framework and workflow

Waveforms

View and analyze waveforms with GTKwave

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