Getting started with

ABC: A System for Sequential

Synthesis and Verification
Ana Petkovska
ana.petkovska@epfl.ch
EPFL – IC – LAP

Lausanne, 28.02.2016
Outline
• Introduction
• Download, Install, Use
• Inside ABC
• Create Your First Command

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What is ABC?
• ABC is a growing software system for synthesis and verification of binary
sequential logic circuits appearing in synchronous hardware designs.
• ABC combines scalable logic optimization based on And-Inverter Graphs (AIGs),
optimal-delay DAG-based technology mapping for look-up tables and standard
cells, and innovative algorithms for sequential synthesis and verification.
• You can find more information at http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~alanmi/abc/

Source http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~alanmi/abc/
Outline
• Introduction
• Download, Install, Use
• Inside ABC
• Create Your First Command

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Get ABC [1]
• The latest version of ABC can be downloaded from
https://bitbucket.org/alanmi/abc

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Get ABC [2]
• The latest version of ABC can be downloaded from
https://bitbucket.org/alanmi/abc

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Install ABC
• Compile ABC as a binary
 download and unzip the code
 go in the directory and type make

• This executes the Makefile [abc/Makefile]

• If you want to delete all intermediate and output files created in the compilation
process type make clean (Do not do it now!)

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Install ABC
• If the compilation process ends successfully you will get

• If there are errors in the compilation process then read the “Troubleshooting”
section in the readme file [abc/readme.md]

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Use ABC
• After successful compilation, you can call the command line interpreter of ABC

where you can execute commands implemented into ABC

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Short Example
• Create a new folder called examples
• Copy the following Verilog code in a file named rca2.v
module rca2 (a0, b0, a1, b1, s0, s1, s2);
//-------------Input Ports Declarations-----------------------------
input a0, b0, a1, b1;
//-------------Output Ports Declarations-----------------------------
output s0, s1, s2;
//-------------Wires-----------------------------------------------
wire c0;
//-------------Logic-----------------------------------------------
assign s0 = a0 ^ b0 ;
assign c0 = a0 & b0 ;
assign s1 = a1 ^ b1 ^ c0;
assign s2 = (a1 & b1) | (c0 & (a1 ^ b1));
endmodule

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Short Example
• Go in the directory abc/examples
• Start ABC by typing ../abc
• Read the circuit defined in rca2.v using the command read (type read rca2.v)
• Do structural hashing using the command strash
• Print the information about the circuit using the command print_stats

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Commands
• You can find short description of part of the existing commands at
http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~alanmi/abc/
in the section “Command summary”
• You can use aliases defined in the abc.rc file [abc/abc.rc]
 For example, instead of read rca2.v you can write r rca2.v
 You can also define your own aliases there

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Outline
• Introduction
• Download, Install, Use
• Inside ABC
• Create Your First Command

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Inside ABC
• Most of the implemented commands are defined in the following files
 src/base/abci/abc.c
 src/base/io/io.c
• The declarations of the basic commands for working with ABC networks can be
found in
 src/base/abc/abc.h

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Outline
• Introduction
• Download, Install, Use
• Inside ABC
• Create Your First Command

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Create a new command
• In the folder src create new folder testFirst with the
following files
 module.make where you will list your .c files for compilation
 testcmd.c where you will declare and define your commands
 testfirst.c where you will define your main functions
 testfirst.h where you will declare your main functions

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File module.make
• In this file you should list your .c files for compilation; thus it has the following content

• Also, you should list your folder as new module in the Makefile [abc/Makefile]

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File testfirst.c [1]
• It is a good practice to start all files with information about the file itself.
• Then, we list the needed libraries and the declarations of the functions that are defined in the file
and are used just in this file.

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File testfirst.c [2]
• Next, we define the function that will be called from our command.
• It extracts the network that is read into ABC and calls another function.

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File testfirst.c [3]
• Finally, we define a function that use the network and prints information about it.

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File testfirst.h
• In this file we declare the functions from our module that can be globally used.

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File testcmd.c [1]
• First, we list the needed libraries and the declarations of the functions that define the commands.
• Next, we include one initialization function for module initialization and for inserting the command
in the system.

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File testcmd.c [2]
• Next, we give the definitions of the functions that implement our commands.

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File src/base/main/mainInit.c
• The file src/base/main/mainInit.c is the only file from the source code of ABC that we need to
change.
• To include our command in the system and to initialize it, we use the previously mentioned
initialization function in the function Abc_FrameInit() for what we add the two lines shown below.

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Test the new command
• To test the new command recompile ABC by typing make
• Then, start ABC, read a network and test the command

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Recommended reading
• “Going Places with ABC” - a presentation that introduces basics of
programming in ABC:
• “Quick Look under the Hood of ABC: A Programmer’s Manual” - a
paper that gives an overview of the ABC programming environment
• “Constructing AIGs in ABC: A Tutorial” - a write-up that shows how to
programmably construct AIG in the user’s application

• All documents are available at

http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~alanmi/abc/
under the section “Programming notes”

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