Introduction to HAL - The idea of HAL and an overview of its core components.

• Building HAL - How to build HAL on your own machine.
• Starting HAL - How to start HAL with or without its GUI.
• Using HAL - First steps in HAL.
• Example Projects - A description of the example projects shipped with HAL.
• HAL in Academia - Applications of HAL in academia.

Core - The part of HAL that provides its underlying functionality.

• Netlist - Represents the connectivity of an electronic circuit.
  • Data Container - A general structure to hold arbitrary data.
  • Gate - Represents the functional or sequential building blocks of a netlist.
  • Net - Serves as a connection between gates within the netlist.
  • Module - Represents a functional unit of gates fulfilling a dedicated purpose.
  • Grouping - Provides an easy way to group gates, nets, and modules.
  • Endpoint - The point where a net connects to a gate.
• Gate Library - Holds all available gate types of a specific standard cell library.
  • Gate Type - Specifies details of the underlying type of a gate.
• Boolean Function - Specifies the Boolean function of a gate (type).
• Decorators (WIP)
• Netlist Utilities - A set of utility functions operating on the netlist providing diverse functionality.

GUI - An in-depth description of the HAL GUI and its functionalities.

• General Concepts - Some of the concepts that are important to understand when dealing with the GUI.
  • Selection - A selection of gates, nets, and modules highlighted within the graph view.
  • View - Contains a subset of the netlist's components.
• Widgets - Details regarding each of the GUI's widgets.
  • Graph View - Displays the netlist and substructures as a visual graph.
  • Modules Widget - An overview about the netlist's module hierarchy.
  • Views Widget - Shows and manages all existing views.
  • Groupings Widget - Shows and manages all existing groupings.
  • Selection Details Widget - Presents detailed information on all items of the current selection.
  • Log Widget - Provides a live view of the HAL log.
  • Python Editor Widget - A lightweight tool for developing HAL python scripts.
  • Python Console Widget - Fast and easy access to the HAL Python API.
• Python GUI API - Interact with GUI selections via python.
• Python Thread - Running Python interpreter in background thread.
• Settings - Settings for the HAL GUI.
• Plugin Management - Manage plugins from GUI.

Provided Plugins - The set of plugins that come with the off-the-shelf variant of HAL.

• Gate Library Files - The gate libraries supported by HAL by default.
• Netlist Preprocessing (WIP)
• Graph Algorithms - An interface to igraph that enables running graph algorithms on a netlist.
• Dataflow Analysis - DANA tool to automatically analyze the flow of data through the netlist.
• HAWKEYE - A tool to automatically locate symmetric cryptographic primitives within a gate-level netlist.
• Bitorder Propagation (WIP)
• Logic Evaluator - A tool to evaluate the behavior of (sub-)networks comprising only combinatorical logic.
• Netlist Simulator and Waveform Viewer - A simulation framework with integrated viewer for waveform analysis.
• Netlist Parsers & Writers (TODO)
• Gate Library Parsers & Writers (TODO)

Create your own Plugins

• Creating an Empty Plugin
• Adding Functionality to a Plugin (WIP)
• Creating Python Bindings for a Plugin (WIP)
• outdated:
  • Standard Plugin (outdated)
  • Netlist Parser (TODO)
  • Netlist Writer (TODO)
  • Gate Library Parser (TODO)
  • Gate Library Writer (TODO)
  • Gate Library - Create a gate library file that can be read by HAL.

Contributing

• Reporting Bugs
• GUI Coding Guidelines (WIP)