Tiny ALU

Description:

tiny-alu is an 8-bit arithmetic logic unit designed for Tiny Tapeout that supports 16 operations through a compact, command-driven hardware interface. The project loads two 8-bit operands, starts execution with a 4-bit opcode, and returns the result while exposing busy and valid status signals, making it behave like a small but complete hardware coprocessor. To stay area-efficient, the design reuses a shared 9-bit adder/subtractor datapath for arithmetic-heavy functions such as add, subtract, negate, multiply, and divide, while implementing multiply, divide, and variable shifts as multicycle FSM-controlled operations. It also includes a cocotb-based verification flow with directed corner cases, randomized regression, and protocol checks, making it a strong demonstration of digital design, hardware resource sharing, finite-state-machine control, and verification for ASIC-oriented workflows.