Renode qemu-virt reference target

Renode is a qemu-virt software reference only tier. The checked-in reference by itself is not boot evidence for the qemu-virt path and is not the e1-chip hardware ABI. In short, this is not the e1-chip hardware ABI.

The platform in this directory mirrors enough of the qemu-virt reference shape for early firmware bring-up experiments: an RV64 CPU, RAM at 0x8000_0000, and a UART at 0x1000_0000. The e1-chip ABI remains the CPU-less debug/MMIO contract in sw/platform/e1_platform_contract.json; the overlapping 0x1000_0000 qemu-virt UART address must not be treated as the e1 peripheral-control block in software that targets real hardware.

scripts/run_renode.sh --check is fail-closed. It checks that the platform, documentation, and sim/renode/expected_serial_banner.txt match the qemu-virt contract, then runs the executable preflight. Missing renode or missing build/qemu/e1_qemu_firmware.elf reports STATUS: BLOCKED unless REQUIRE_RENODE=1 is set. When both are present, check mode runs Renode for a bounded interval and only passes if the captured output contains the expected serial banner. Install Renode from the official packages, confirm the executable and version, then run:

command -v renode
renode --version
scripts/run_qemu.sh --build-firmware
make renode-check

Manual transcript intake is explicit:

scripts/run_renode.sh --check --transcript path/to/real-renode-serial.log

Transcript intake also runs the local Renode preflight and checks for build/qemu/e1_qemu_firmware.elf. A copied banner in a text file is not enough on its own: if renode is missing, renode --version cannot run, or the firmware ELF is absent, intake remains STATUS: BLOCKED.

The expected UART banner contract is: scripts/run_renode.sh --check is fail-closed. It checks that the platform and documentation match the qemu-virt contract, then reports executable smoke as STATUS: BLOCKED unless a real Renode serial transcript path exists. The expected UART transcript artifact is build/renode/eliza_e1_uart.transcript, the expected smoke manifest artifact is build/renode/eliza_e1_smoke.json, and the QEMU reference transcript artifact is build/reports/qemu_smoke.log. A future passing smoke must load build/qemu/e1_qemu_firmware.elf and capture the UART banner:

eliza e1 qemu

Passing bounded check or intake archives build/reports/renode_smoke.log and build/reports/renode_smoke.manifest. A failed bounded run writes build/reports/renode_smoke_attempt.log but does not create passing evidence. The manifest is validated before renode.run can pass and must identify the evidence as renode-executable-transcript, bind it to the archived transcript hash, bind it to the firmware hash, record the Renode executable/version preflight, point at the banner contract, and repeat the required banner. Until a real transcript is captured by Renode or ingested from a real Renode serial run, Renode status may be described only as reference-only or blocked, not booted. Until that transcript is automated and checked in, Renode status may be described only as reference-only or blocked, not booted.