SURF - SLAC Ultimate RTL Framework

The SLAC Ultimate RTL Framework (SURF) is a firmware framework that has been developed by SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. It is a substantial VHDL library, built upon more than 10 years of development. It finds extensive utilization in AMD/Xilinx FPGAs and custom digital ASIC designs. The framework comprises VHDL-based intellectual properties (IPs) for commonly implemented modules. It has been widely adopted by numerous experiments and applications. SURF is open source and published on Github..

Problem trying to solve:
 
  • "The devil created graphical programming" -Wirth's Law
  • Vendor IP cores difficult to work with and reconfigure
    • Need to open toolchain and use GUI
  • Vendor IP cores are not cross-platform
  • Using IP cores for base blocks guarantees you will never be able to reuse them elsewhere, even in the same toolchain
Solution:
 
  • “Real code is better!” - Ben Reese (SLAC)
  • Wanted pure VHDL implementation of library modules with Generics to control configuration
    • RAMs, FIFOs, Everything!

  • Toolchains infer (e.g. Block RAMs) for cross platform VHDL

     

What is “SURF”?
 
  • Acronym for SLAC Ultimate RTL Framework (SURF)
    • Open-source VHDL framework for rapid FPGA/ASIC development using common generic, extensible libraries
  • Published on Github:
  • Over 13 years of cumulative development
    • 1st commit on Wed Jun 9 23:05:52 2010
  • More than >7k commits and >1k pull requests from both SLAC and non-SLAC developers
  • Maintained and managed by SLAC