%0 Journal Article %J IEEE Micro %D 2020 %T CHIPKIT: An agile, reusable open-source framework for rapid test chip development %A Paul Whatmough %A Marco Donato %A Ko, Glenn %A David Brooks %A Gu-Wei %K accelerators %X The current trend for domain-specific architectures (DSAs) has led to renewed interest in research test chips to demonstrate new specialized hardware. Tape-outs also offer huge pedagogical value garnered from real hands-on exposure to the whole system stack. However, successful tape-outs demand hard-earned experience, and the design process is time consuming and fraught with challenges. Therefore, custom chips have remained the preserve of a small number of research groups, typically focused on circuit design research. This paper describes the CHIPKIT framework. We describe a reusable SoC subsystem which provides basic IO, an on-chip programmable host, memory and peripherals. This subsystem can be readily extended with new IP blocks to generate custom test chips. We also present an agile RTL development flow, including a code generation tool calledVGEN. Finally, we outline best practices for full-chip validation across the entire design cycle. %B IEEE Micro %V 40 %P 32 - 40 %G eng %U https://arxiv.org/abs/2001.04504 %N 4