Using NMSIS-NN

Here we will describe how to run the nmsis nn examples in Nuclei QEMU.

Preparation

  • Nuclei SDK, master branch(>= 0.8.0 release)

  • Nuclei RISC-V GNU Toolchain 2025.02

  • Nuclei QEMU 2025.02

  • CMake >= 3.14

  • Python 3 and pip package requirements located in

    • <nuclei-sdk>/tools/scripts/requirements.txt

    • <NMSIS>/NMSIS/Scripts/requirements.txt

Tool Setup

  1. Export PATH correctly for qemu and riscv64-unknown-elf-gcc

export PATH=/path/to/qemu/bin:/path/to/gcc/bin:$PATH

Build NMSIS NN Library

  1. Download or clone NMSIS source code into NMSIS directory.

  2. cd to NMSIS/NMSIS/ directory, if you want to add or remove more arches to be build, you can modify Scripts/Build/nmsis_nn.json file

  3. Build NMSIS NN library and strip debug information using make gen_nn_lib

  4. The nn library will be generated into ./Library/NN/GCC folder

  5. The nn libraries will be look like this:

$ ls -lhgG Library/NN/GCC/
total 64M
-rw-rw-r-- 1 619K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imac.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 983K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imac_xxldsp.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 986K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imac_xxldspn1x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 989K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imac_xxldspn2x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 992K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imac_xxldspn3x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 607K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imac_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 961K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imac_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs_xxldsp.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 964K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imac_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs_xxldspn1x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 966K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imac_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs_xxldspn2x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 969K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imac_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs_xxldspn3x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 620K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafc.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 984K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafc_xxldsp.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 987K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafc_xxldspn1x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 990K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafc_xxldspn2x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 993K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafc_xxldspn3x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 608K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafc_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 962K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafc_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs_xxldsp.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 965K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafc_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs_xxldspn1x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 968K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafc_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs_xxldspn2x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 970K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafc_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs_xxldspn3x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 716K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafc_zve32f.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 848K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafc_zve32f_xxldsp.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 851K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafc_zve32f_xxldspn1x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 854K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafc_zve32f_xxldspn2x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 856K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafc_zve32f_xxldspn3x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 695K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafc_zve32f_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 825K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafc_zve32f_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs_xxldsp.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 828K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafc_zve32f_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs_xxldspn1x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 831K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafc_zve32f_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs_xxldspn2x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 834K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafc_zve32f_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs_xxldspn3x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 621K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafdc.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 985K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafdc_xxldsp.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 988K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafdc_xxldspn1x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 991K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafdc_xxldspn2x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 994K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafdc_xxldspn3x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 609K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafdc_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 963K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafdc_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs_xxldsp.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 966K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafdc_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs_xxldspn1x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 969K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafdc_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs_xxldspn2x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 972K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafdc_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs_xxldspn3x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 718K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafdc_zve32f.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 847K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafdc_zve32f_xxldsp.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 850K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafdc_zve32f_xxldspn1x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 852K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafdc_zve32f_xxldspn2x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 855K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafdc_zve32f_xxldspn3x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 697K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafdc_zve32f_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 824K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafdc_zve32f_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs_xxldsp.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 827K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafdc_zve32f_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs_xxldspn1x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 830K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafdc_zve32f_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs_xxldspn2x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 832K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv32imafdc_zve32f_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs_xxldspn3x.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 852K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv64imac.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 1.4M Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv64imac_xxldsp.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 826K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv64imac_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 1.4M Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv64imac_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs_xxldsp.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 854K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv64imafc.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 1.4M Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv64imafc_xxldsp.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 827K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv64imafc_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 1.4M Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv64imafc_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs_xxldsp.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 965K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv64imafc_zve64f.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 1.2M Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv64imafc_zve64f_xxldsp.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 932K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv64imafc_zve64f_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 1.2M Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv64imafc_zve64f_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs_xxldsp.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 855K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv64imafdc.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 972K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv64imafdcv.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 1.2M Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv64imafdcv_xxldsp.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 939K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv64imafdcv_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 1.2M Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv64imafdcv_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs_xxldsp.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 1.4M Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv64imafdc_xxldsp.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 828K Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv64imafdc_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 1.4M Oct 20 11:55 libnmsis_nn_rv64imafdc_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs_xxldsp.a

  1. library name with extra _xxldsp _xxldspn1x _xxldspn2x _xxldspn3x is built with RISC-V DSP enabled

    The examples are as follows:

    • libnmsis_nn_rv32imac.a: Build for RISCV_ARCH=rv32imac without DSP

    • libnmsis_nn_rv32imac_xxldsp.a: Build for RISCV_ARCH=rv32imac_xxldsp with Nuclei DSP enabled

    • libnmsis_nn_rv32imac_xxldspn1x.a: Build for RISCV_ARCH=rv32imac_xxldspn1x with Nuclei N1 DSP extension enabled

    • libnmsis_nn_rv32imac_xxldspn2x.a: Build for RISCV_ARCH=rv32imac_xxldspn2x with Nuclei N1/N2 DSP extension enabled

    • libnmsis_nn_rv32imac_xxldspn3x.a: Build for RISCV_ARCH=rv32imac_xxldspn3x with Nuclei N1/N2/N3 DSP extension enabled

  2. library name with extra _zve32f _zve64f v is built with RISC-V Vector enabled

    The examples are as follows:

    • libnmsis_nn_rv32imafc_zve32f.a: Build for RISCV_ARCH=rv32imafc_zve32f with Vector enabled

    • libnmsis_nn_rv32imafdc_zve32f.a: Build for RISCV_ARCH=rv32imafdc_zve32f with Vector enabled

    • libnmsis_nn_rv64imafc_zve64f.a: Build for RISCV_ARCH=rv64imafc_zve64f with Vector enabled

    • libnmsis_nn_rv64imafdcv.a: Build for RISCV_ARCH=rv64imafdcv with Vector enabled

Note

  • This NMSIS 1.2.0 is a big change version, will no longer support old gcc 10 verison, and it now only support Nuclei Toolchain 2023.10. The --march option has changed a lot, such as:

    • b extension changed to _zba_zbb_zbc_zbs extension,

    • p extension changed to _xxldsp , _xxldspn1x , _xxldspn2x , _xxldspn3x extensions which means stardard DSP extension, Nuclei N1, N2, N3 DSP extensions

    • v extension changed to v, _zve32f, _zve64f extensions

  • The name of libraries has changed with -march, for examples, the library named libnmsis_nn_rv32imacb.a is now named libnmsis_nn_rv32imac_zba_zbb_zbc_zbs.a since b extension changed to _zba_zbb_zbc_zbs

  • _xxldspn1x _xxldspn2x _xxldspn3x only valid for RISC-V 32bit processor. _xxldsp is valid for RISC-V 32/64 bit processor

  • You can also directly build both DSP and NN library using make gen

  • You can strip the generated DSP and NN library using make strip

  • DSP and Vector extension can be combined, such as _xxldsp, v and v_xxldsp, should notice the extension order

  • Vector extension currently enabled for RISC-V 32/64 bit processor

  • NN library has no float16 data type, so here have no need to build float16 library

How to run

  1. Set environment variables NUCLEI_SDK_ROOT and NUCLEI_SDK_NMSIS, and set Nuclei SDK SoC to evalsoc, and change ilm/dlm size from 64K to 512K.

export NUCLEI_SDK_ROOT=/path/to/nuclei_sdk
export NUCLEI_SDK_NMSIS=/path/to/NMSIS/NMSIS
# Setup SDK development environment
cd $NUCLEI_SDK_ROOT
source setup.sh
cd -
# !!!!Take Care!!!!
# change this link script will make compiled example can only run on bitstream which has 512K ILM/DLM
# For Nuclei SDK < 0.7.0
sed -i "s/64K/512K/g" $NUCLEI_SDK_ROOT/SoC/evalsoc/Board/nuclei_fpga_eval/Source/GCC/gcc_evalsoc_ilm.ld
# For Nuclei SDK >= 0.7.0
sed -i 's/\([ID]LM_MEMORY_SIZE\).*/\1 = 0x80000;/' $NUCLEI_SDK_ROOT/SoC/evalsoc/Board/nuclei_fpga_eval/Source/GCC/evalsoc.memory
export SOC=evalsoc

  1. Due to many of the examples could not be placed in 64K ILM and 64K DLM, and we are running using qemu, the ILM/DLM size in it are set to be 32MB, so we can change ilm/dlm to 512K/512K in the link script $NUCLEI_SDK_ROOT/SoC/evalsoc/Board/nuclei_fpga_eval/Source/GCC/gcc_evalsoc_ilm.ld or $NUCLEI_SDK_ROOT/SoC/evalsoc/Board/nuclei_fpga_eval/Source/GCC/evalsoc.memory

--- a/SoC/evalsoc/Board/nuclei_fpga_eval/Source/GCC/gcc_evalsoc_ilm.ld
+++ b/SoC/evalsoc/Board/nuclei_fpga_eval/Source/GCC/gcc_evalsoc_ilm.ld
@@ -30,8 +30,8 @@ __HEAP_SIZE  = 2K;

MEMORY
{
-  ilm (rxa!w) : ORIGIN = 0x80000000, LENGTH = 64K
-  ram (wxa!r) : ORIGIN = 0x90000000, LENGTH = 64K
+  ilm (rxa!w) : ORIGIN = 0x80000000, LENGTH = 512K
+  ram (wxa!r) : ORIGIN = 0x90000000, LENGTH = 512K
}

  1. Let us take cifar10 for example:

cd $NUCLEI_SDK_NMSIS/NN/Examples/RISCV/cifar10/

  1. Run with RISCV DSP enabled and Vector enabled NMSIS-NN library for CORE nx900fd

# Clean project
make ARCH_EXT=v_xxldsp CORE=nx900fd clean
# Build project, enable ``v`` and ``xxldsp`` optimize
make ARCH_EXT=v_xxldsp CORE=nx900fd all
# Run application using qemu
make ARCH_EXT=v_xxldsp CORE=nx900fd run_qemu

  1. Run with RISCV DSP disabled and Vector disabled NMSIS-NN library for CORE nx900fd

make ARCH_EXT= CORE=nx900fd clean
make ARCH_EXT= CORE=nx900fd all
make ARCH_EXT= CORE=nx900fd run_qemu

Note

  • You can easily run this example in your hardware, if you have enough memory to run it, just modify the SOC to the one your are using in step 1.