Workshop on Prototyping Custom Architectures with Open-Source Tools (PROTOTYPE)

Date: May 28, 2025

Time: 13:30 - 17:30

Place: Kumamoto Citizen Hall, Kumamoto, Japan

Note: Registration for HEART 2025 is required to attend this workshop.
https://sites.google.com/view/heart2025/registration

Call for Short Talks and Participation

We invite attendees to contribute short talks (15~20 minutes) related to prototypes, early ideas, or work-in-progress. If you're interested, please contact the orgenizers.

Abstract: 

In the post-Moore era, specialized hardware architectures have become a vital path forward for high-performance computing and experimental sciences. However, the process of hardware prototyping remains slow and restrictive, often relying on traditional Verilog-based flows and commercial simulation tools, which can present challenges for flexibility and accessibility. This bottleneck not only stifles innovation but also limits collaboration across academia and industry.

To break these barriers and foster a stronger hardware research community, this workshop focuses on open-source methodologies and tools that accelerate design, simulation, verification, and deployment of custom architectures. The Chisel ecosystem, including FireSim and Chipyard, is rapidly gaining traction due to its powerful parameterization, generator-based design, and high-level abstraction capabilities. FireSim, in particular, stands out as an innovative open-source simulation platform, enabling scalable, FPGA-accelerated evaluation of complex architectures.

By bringing together researchers and practitioners, this workshop aims to strengthen the hardware design community, address the critical shortage of hardware engineers, and advance the adoption of open-source hardware development. We will explore emerging trends, best practices, and collaborative opportunities for accelerating the prototyping of domain-specific accelerators, ASICs, and FPGA-based solutions.

Topics of Interest Include (but are not limited to):

• Open-source hardware tool ecosystems (Chisel, FireSim, Verilator, cocotb, OpenROAD, Chipyard, MoSAIC, etc.)

• Custom hardware design for ASICs and FPGAs using open-source flows

• Computing accelerators for AI, HPC, and experimental sciences

• Near-detector data processing hardware for X-ray science, high-energy physics, quantum computing, etc.

• Compression techniques, deep neural networks, and spiking neural networks

• Surface codes and error correction for quantum computing

• Common research testbeds and source-code repositories

Workshop Format:

This workshop will feature presentations, discussions, and hands-on learning opportunities focused on open-source hardware prototyping. Participants will present their recent research, methodologies, and use cases, showcasing innovative approaches to specialized hardware design. The workshop will also serve as a forum for collaborative discussions on emerging trends, technical challenges, and opportunities for cross-disciplinary innovation.

For attendees who are less familiar with the Chisel ecosystem, we will include a quick tutorial session covering Chisel, Chipyard, and FireSim, providing an introduction to their capabilities and workflows. This session will help participants quickly get up to speed and engage more effectively in discussions.

Additionally, we aim to facilitate the exchange of research ideas among participants, promoting collaborative discussions in line with DOE/MEXT collaborations.

Organizers: Kazutomo Yoshii (ANL) <kazutomo@anl.gov>, Kentaro Sano (RIKEN), Farzad Fatollahi-Fard (LBNL)