RAVEN — Multi-Architecture Assembly Simulator & IDE

Leia em Português

RAVEN is a free, open-source assembly simulator and terminal IDE for students and anyone learning computer architecture. Its flagship backend is RISC-V (RV32IMAF) — the full base integer set, multiply/divide, atomics, and single-precision float, with a full virtual-memory/TLB model, JIT, and multicore — and it makes every part of the machine visible while your program runs. Three smaller teaching backends — x86-64, SAP, and Toy16 — are also built in; see Other Architectures.

Write assembly in the built-in editor, assemble with Ctrl+Enter, and step through every instruction watching registers, memory, and the cache update in real time. Nothing is hidden.

---

Quick Start

Download the latest binary from Releases, or build from source:

git clone https://github.com/Gaok1/Raven-RiscV.git
cd Raven-RiscV
cargo run

Requires Rust 1.85+ (the crates use the 2024 edition). On Linux, building from source also needs pkg-config and the GTK 3 development files (libgtk-3-dev on Debian/Ubuntu); the prebuilt binaries need nothing extra.

---

What you get

The tabs below show the full experience with the flagship RISC-V (RV32IMAF) backend loaded. Switching to x86-64, SAP, or Toy16 (a on the Settings screen, or --arch <id> on the CLI) reuses the same editor, debugger, cache, and pipeline UI, but each backend only lights up what it actually models — see Other Architectures.

Editor (Tab 1)

• Syntax highlighting — instructions, registers, labels, directives, strings
• Ghost operand hints while typing
• Ctrl+Enter to assemble instantly; errors show line number and reason
• Undo/redo (50 levels), word navigation, toggle comment (Ctrl+/), select next occurrence (Ctrl+d)
• Go-to-definition (F12), label highlight, address gutter (F2)

Debugger — Run Tab (Tab 2)

• Run free (r), pause (p), restart (R), or single-step (s)
• Breakpoints (F9), jump to label (Ctrl+g), jump to RAM address (Ctrl+f), execution trace (t)
• All 32 integer registers with ABI names, change highlighting
• Float registers (f0–f31 / ABI names), toggled with Tab in REGS mode
• Sidebar cycles with v: RAM → Registers → Dyn
  • RAM: scrollable memory view; k cycles region: Data / Stack / R/W / Heap (sbrk pointer, ▶HB marker)
  • R/W: still RAM view, but auto-follows the last memory access address from LOAD and STORE
  • Registers: integer or float register bank with per-register age highlighting; pin with P
  • Dyn: self-narrating mode for single-stepping — STORE → RAM centered on the written address (▶); LOAD / ALU / branch → register bank so you see the result
• Instruction memory panel: type badge [R] R-type · [I] I-type · [S] Store · [B] Branch · [U] Upper · [J] Jump · [A] Atomic · [F] Float; execution heat ×N, branch outcome
• Instruction decoder: full field breakdown (opcode, funct3/7, rs1/rs2/rd, immediate, sign-extended)

Cache Simulator (Tab 3)

• Separate I-cache and D-cache, plus unlimited extra levels (L2, L3…)
• Configurable: sets, ways, block size, write policy (write-through/write-back + allocate/no-allocate), inclusion policy (non-inclusive/inclusive/exclusive)
• Six replacement policies: LRU, FIFO, LFU, Clock, MRU, Random
• Live stats: hit rate, MPKI, RAM traffic, top miss PCs
• Academic metrics: AMAT (hierarchical), IPC, CPI per instruction class
• Visual matrix view: every set and way, valid/tag/dirty state, scrollable
• Multicore cache coherence: one shared L1, or a private L1 per core kept coherent by MSI, MESI or MOESI (or by nothing, to see stale data) — with line states, bus requests and per-core bus traffic in the Coherence subtab (guide)
• Export results (Ctrl+r) to .rstats/.csv
• CPI configuration: per-class cycle costs (ALU, MUL, DIV, LOAD, STORE, branch, JUMP, FP…)

Pipeline Simulator (Tab 4)

• Five-stage in-order pipeline visualization with per-cycle stepping and run/pause controls
• Main and Config subtabs for hazard/history inspection and pipeline configuration
• Branch resolve and predictor controls, bypass toggles, and hazard map visualization
• Export the unified config / results with Ctrl+e, Ctrl+l, and Ctrl+r

Docs Tab (Tab 5)

• Instruction reference for all supported instructions
• Run tab key guide

---

ISA Coverage — RISC-V (RV32IMAF)

Extension	Instructions
RV32I	ADD, SUB, AND, OR, XOR, SLL, SRL, SRA, SLT, SLTU, ADDI, ANDI, ORI, XORI, SLTI, SLTIU, SLLI, SRLI, SRAI, LB, LH, LW, LBU, LHU, SB, SH, SW, BEQ, BNE, BLT, BGE, BLTU, BGEU, JAL, JALR, LUI, AUIPC, FENCE, FENCE.I, ECALL, EBREAK
RV32M	MUL, MULH, MULHSU, MULHU, DIV, DIVU, REM, REMU
RV32A	LR.W, SC.W, AMOSWAP.W, AMOADD.W, AMOXOR.W, AMOAND.W, AMOOR.W, AMOMAX.W, AMOMIN.W, AMOMAXU.W, AMOMINU.W
RV32F	FADD.S, FSUB.S, FMUL.S, FDIV.S, FSQRT.S, FMIN.S, FMAX.S, FEQ.S, FLT.S, FLE.S, FLW, FSW, FMV.W.X, FMV.X.W, FCVT.W.S, FCVT.WU.S, FCVT.S.W, FCVT.S.WU, FCLASS.S, FMADD.S, FMSUB.S, FNMADD.S, FNMSUB.S, FNEG.S, FABS.S

Pseudo-instructions: la, li, mv, neg, not, ret, call, push, pop, seqz, snez, beqz, bnez, bgt, ble, fmv.s, fneg.s, fabs.s, and more.

Syscalls (ecall): print integer/string, read input, exit, random bytes — Linux-compatible ABI (a7 = syscall number).

The three smaller backends have their own, much smaller instruction sets — see Other Architectures below, or each backend's tab in the in-app Docs reference.

---

Other Architectures

RISC-V (RV32IMAF) is Raven's flagship backend — currently the only one with virtual memory, a JIT, multicore, and floating point. Three smaller teaching backends are also built in, reusing the same editor, debugger, cache, and pipeline UI. Switch with a on the Settings screen, or --arch <id> on the CLI:

Backend	--arch id	ELF	Cache	Pipeline	Virtual memory	JIT	Multicore	Float	Syscalls
RISC-V (RV32IMAF)	riscv32	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
x86-64	x86_64	yes	yes	yes	no	no	no	no	yes
SAP	sap	no	yes	yes	no	no	no	no	no
Toy16	toy16	no	yes	yes	no	no	no	no	yes

• x86-64 — an Intel-syntax integer/system core: moves, ALU ops, stack and control flow, hlt, and Linux-style read/write/exit syscalls, with its own split I/D cache and a 5-stage pipeline view. No virtual memory, JIT, multicore, or floating point — a deliberately bare, single-core machine for studying x86 addressing modes and calling convention without RISC-V's regularity.
• SAP — the classic 8-bit "Simple-As-Possible" teaching CPU: one accumulator, a 16-byte address space, and out/putc for I/O. No ELF loading and no syscalls — there's no operand width left to hang a calling convention on — just enough machine to teach fetch-decode-execute from first principles.
• Toy16 — a tiny 16-bit ISA built to be deliberately different from RISC-V, so Raven's architecture-neutral tooling isn't accidentally RISC-V-shaped. Has its own registers, cache, and pipeline, plus a small read/write/exit syscall ABI, but no ELF loading, virtual memory, multicore, or floating point.

---

Loading ELF Binaries

RAVEN can load and execute ELF32 LE RISC-V binaries compiled by any standard toolchain. It is officially compatible with:

Target	Support
riscv32im-unknown-none-elf	✅ Full
riscv32ima-unknown-none-elf	✅ Full

Running a Rust no_std program

# 1. Add the target (once)
rustup target add riscv32im-unknown-none-elf

# 2. Build your project
cargo build --target riscv32im-unknown-none-elf

# 3. Open RAVEN, go to the Editor tab, click [BIN] and select the ELF
#    (found at target/riscv32im-unknown-none-elf/debug/<your-crate>)

The ELF is loaded at its linked virtual addresses, the PC is set to the entry point, and the disassembler shows the decoded text segment. Unknown words (data, padding) appear as .word 0x....

A ready-to-use project with _start, panic handler, allocator, and wrappers for write, read, and exit is available at rust-to-raven/.

---

Assembler

• .text, .data, .bss segments
• Directives: .byte, .half, .word, .dword, .float, .ascii, .asciz, .string, .space, .globl
• .word label — label addresses as data values (jump tables, pointer arrays)
• Block comments (##!) and inline annotations (#!) visible in the Run tab at runtime
• Clear error messages with line numbers

---

Key Bindings

Global

Key	Action
Ctrl+Enter	Assemble and load

Run Tab

Key	Action
r / p	Run / Pause
s	Single step
R	Restart simulation
F9	Toggle breakpoint at PC
f	Cycle speed: 1× → 2× → 4× → 8× → GO
v	Cycle sidebar: RAM → Registers → Dyn
k	Cycle RAM region: Data → Stack → R/W → Heap
Tab	Toggle integer / float register bank (REGS mode)
t	Toggle execution trace panel
Ctrl+f	Jump RAM view to address
Ctrl+g	Jump instruction view to label

---

Included Examples

Program Examples/ contains ready-to-run programs, grouped by topic:

File	Demonstrates
basics/ (print.s, sum_1_to_10.s, ...)	First steps: printing, loops, pseudo-instructions
algorithms/fib.s	Recursion, stack frames, calling convention
algorithms/bubble_sort_20.s	Loops, pointer arithmetic, in-place swap
algorithms/quick_sort_20_push_pop.s	Recursive quicksort with push/pop
algorithms/binary_search_tree.s	Heap allocation, pointer chasing
algorithms/gcd_euclid.s	Iterative algorithm, branch-heavy
cache/cache_locality.s	Cache-friendly vs cache-hostile access patterns
pipeline/pipeline_forwarding_demo.s	RAW chains and forwarding paths
pipeline/pipeline_load_use_demo.s	Load-use stalls and replays
pipeline/pipeline_branch_flush_demo.s	Prediction, redirect, and wrong-path squash
pipeline/pipeline_cache_stall_demo.s	MEM stalls from cache latency
syscalls/ (io_echo.s, syscall_echo_linux.s)	Console I/O via Linux ABI and teaching syscalls
harts/hart_spawn_visual_demo.s	Multi-hart activity across cores for Run/Pipeline inspection
harts/coherence_flag_handoff.s	A flag handed between cores: stale data without a coherence protocol
harts/coherence_false_sharing.s	False sharing: two cores' counters on one cache line
graphics/snake.s	Complete snake game on the graphics syscalls (2000+)

---

CLI

Raven can also be used headlessly from the command line — assemble, simulate, export/import configs, and redirect output to files.

raven build program.s                             # assemble
raven run   program.s --nout                      # run, suppress stats
raven run   program.toy --arch toy16 --nout       # select another backend at runtime
raven run   program.s --out results.json          # run, save stats
raven run   program.s --config my.rcfg \
                        --format csv --out stats.csv
raven export-config --out default.rcfg              # dump default unified config
raven check-config  my.rcfg                         # validate a config

See the CLI Reference for all subcommands and flags.

---

Docs

• Interactive tutorial — press [?] on any tab inside Raven (EN / PT-BR toggle with [L])
• CLI Reference (EN) — all subcommands, flags, config file formats
• Referência da CLI (PT-BR)
• Instruction formats (EN) — bit layouts, encoding, pseudo-instructions
• Formatos (PT-BR)
• Cache config file reference — [cache] section of .rcfg, all fields, LN hierarchy, LLM prompt template
• Cache coherence — private L1 per core, MSI / MESI / MOESI, bus requests, experiments (PT-BR)

---

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. The simulator lives in crates/raven-engine, with one module per architecture under src/architectures/; the TUI and CLI are in src/.