TDC standardization of the firmware development environment and CI

In the early stages of prototyping standardization was not enforced and each firmware designer selected preferred development environment. Firmware developed so far does not include framework for continuous integration.  The intention is to create a framework for firmware development to facilitate code re-use, code reviews, continuous integration and adoption of standards.  

To do:

Setup Gitlab runners to execute CI workflows for simulation and firmware builds.

• For existing repositories with Vunit based testbenches.
  • Explore reporting and notification options.
• For each persona in the existing TalonDX firmware setup.
  • Setup nightly synthesis and elaboration builds (30 to 60 mins) to check successful synthesis
    • report and log changes in warnings reported
  • Setup weekly full builds on the develop branch
    • report and log changes in resource usage, static timing
  • Setup monthly full builds on the master branch

This should help maintain a healthy code base by raising issues earlier and when breaking changes are made.

This should give engineers the confidence to attempt code changes and maintenance knowing that the CI system will catch and alert them to unexpected affects of a change.