llvm / llvm/circt

[FIRRTL] Cache Parsed Width/Const Casts

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FIRRTL good first issue
Dominant language
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Description

Currently constants are cached during parsing. However, the width/const casts of them are not. This creates a lot of unnecessary IR expansion that CSE will remove later. Fix this to avoid the blow-up.

Consider:

```
FIRRTL version 2.0.0
circuit Foo:
module Foo:
output bu: UInt<8>
output ou: UInt<8>

bu <= UInt("b101010")
ou <= UInt("o052")
```

This is parsed as:

```mlir
module {
firrtl.circuit "Foo" {
firrtl.module @Foo(out %bu: !firrtl.uint<8>, out %ou: !firrtl.uint<8>) attributes {convention = #firrtl} {
%c42_ui = firrtl.constant 42 : !firrtl.const.uint
%0 = firrtl.widthCast %c42_ui : (!firrtl.const.uint) -> !firrtl.const.uint<8>
%1 = firrtl.constCast %0 : (!firrtl.const.uint<8>) -> !firrtl.uint<8>
firrtl.strictconnect %bu, %1 : !firrtl.uint<8>
%2 = firrtl.widthCast %c42_ui : (!firrtl.const.uint) -> !firrtl.const.uint<8>
%3 = firrtl.constCast %2 : (!firrtl.const.uint<8>) -> !firrtl.uint<8>
firrtl.strictconnect %ou, %3 : !firrtl.uint<8>
}
}
}
```

Contributor guide

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start in the FIRRTL parsing path described by the issue and reproduce the supplied Foo example. Compare the generated IR for repeated width/const casts, then verify that equivalent casts reuse cached values and that the example no longer expands duplicate IR before CSE.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
compilers
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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