diff --git a/common.mk b/common.mk
index f335a212..9bb2f94c 100644
--- a/common.mk
+++ b/common.mk
@@ -19,7 +19,8 @@ HELP_COMPILATION_VARIABLES += \
 "   ENABLE_CUSTOM_FIRRTL_PASS = if set, enable custom firrtl passes (SFC lowers to LowFIRRTL & MFC converts to Verilog)" \
 "   ENABLE_YOSYS_FLOW         = if set, add compilation flags to enable the vlsi flow for yosys(tutorial flow)" \
 "   EXTRA_CHISEL_OPTIONS      = additional options to pass to the Chisel compiler" \
-"   EXTRA_FIRRTL_OPTIONS      = additional options to pass to the FIRRTL compiler"
+"   EXTRA_BASE_FIRRTL_OPTIONS = additional options to pass to the Scala FIRRTL compiler" \
+"   MFC_BASE_LOWERING_OPTIONS = override lowering options to pass to the MLIR FIRRTL compiler"
 
 EXTRA_GENERATOR_REQS ?= $(BOOTROM_TARGETS)
 EXTRA_SIM_CXXFLAGS   ?=
@@ -175,7 +176,7 @@ SFC_MFC_TARGETS = \
 	$(GEN_COLLATERAL_DIR)
 
 SFC_REPL_SEQ_MEM = --infer-rw --repl-seq-mem -c:$(MODEL):-o:$(SFC_SMEMS_CONF)
-MFC_BASE_LOWERING_OPTIONS = emittedLineLength=2048,noAlwaysComb,disallowLocalVariables,verifLabels,locationInfoStyle=wrapInAtSquareBracket
+MFC_BASE_LOWERING_OPTIONS ?= emittedLineLength=2048,noAlwaysComb,disallowLocalVariables,verifLabels,locationInfoStyle=wrapInAtSquareBracket
 
 # DOC include start: FirrtlCompiler
 # There are two possible cases for this step. In the first case, SFC
@@ -188,24 +189,30 @@ MFC_BASE_LOWERING_OPTIONS = emittedLineLength=2048,noAlwaysComb,disallowLocalVar
 # hack: lower to low firrtl if Fixed types are found
 # hack: when using dontTouch, io.cpu annotations are not removed by SFC,
 # hence we remove them manually by using jq before passing them to firtool
-$(SFC_LEVEL) $(EXTRA_FIRRTL_OPTIONS) $(FINAL_ANNO_FILE) $(MFC_LOWERING_OPTIONS) &: $(FIRRTL_FILE) $(EXTRA_ANNO_FILE) $(SFC_EXTRA_ANNO_FILE) $(VLOG_SOURCES)
+
+$(SFC_LEVEL) $(EXTRA_FIRRTL_OPTIONS) &: $(FIRRTL_FILE)
 ifeq (,$(ENABLE_CUSTOM_FIRRTL_PASS))
-	$(eval SFC_LEVEL := $(if $(shell grep "Fixed<" $(FIRRTL_FILE)), low, none))
-	$(eval EXTRA_FIRRTL_OPTIONS += $(if $(shell grep "Fixed<" $(FIRRTL_FILE)), $(SFC_REPL_SEQ_MEM),))
+	echo $(if $(shell grep "Fixed<" $(FIRRTL_FILE)), low, none) > $(SFC_LEVEL)
+	echo "$(EXTRA_BASE_FIRRTL_OPTIONS)" $(if $(shell grep "Fixed<" $(FIRRTL_FILE)), "$(SFC_REPL_SEQ_MEM)",) > $(EXTRA_FIRRTL_OPTIONS)
 else
-	$(eval SFC_LEVEL := low)
-	$(eval EXTRA_FIRRTL_OPTIONS += $(SFC_REPL_SEQ_MEM))
+	echo low > $(SFC_LEVEL)
+	echo "$(EXTRA_BASE_FIRRTL_OPTIONS)" "$(SFC_REPL_SEQ_MEM)" > $(EXTRA_FIRRTL_OPTIONS)
 endif
+
+$(MFC_LOWERING_OPTIONS):
 ifeq (,$(ENABLE_YOSYS_FLOW))
-	$(eval MFC_LOWERING_OPTIONS = $(MFC_BASE_LOWERING_OPTIONS))
+	echo "$(MFC_BASE_LOWERING_OPTIONS)" > $@
 else
-	$(eval MFC_LOWERING_OPTIONS = $(MFC_BASE_LOWERING_OPTIONS),disallowPackedArrays)
+	echo "$(MFC_BASE_LOWERING_OPTIONS),disallowPackedArrays" > $@
 endif
-	if [ $(SFC_LEVEL) = low ]; then jq -s '[.[][]]' $(EXTRA_ANNO_FILE) $(SFC_EXTRA_ANNO_FILE) > $(FINAL_ANNO_FILE); fi
-	if [ $(SFC_LEVEL) = none ]; then cat $(EXTRA_ANNO_FILE) > $(FINAL_ANNO_FILE); fi
+
+$(FINAL_ANNO_FILE): $(EXTRA_ANNO_FILE) $(SFC_EXTRA_ANNO_FILE) $(VLOG_SOURCES) $(SFC_LEVEL)
+	if [ $(shell cat $(SFC_LEVEL)) = low ]; then jq -s '[.[][]]' $(EXTRA_ANNO_FILE) $(SFC_EXTRA_ANNO_FILE) > $@; fi
+	if [ $(shell cat $(SFC_LEVEL)) = none ]; then cat $(EXTRA_ANNO_FILE) > $@; fi
+	touch $@
 
 $(SFC_MFC_TARGETS) &: private TMP_DIR := $(shell mktemp -d -t cy-XXXXXXXX)
-$(SFC_MFC_TARGETS) &: $(TAPEOUT_CLASSPATH_TARGETS) $(FIRRTL_FILE) $(FINAL_ANNO_FILE) $(SFC_LEVEL) $(EXTRA_FIRRTL_OPTIONS)
+$(SFC_MFC_TARGETS) &: $(TAPEOUT_CLASSPATH_TARGETS) $(FIRRTL_FILE) $(FINAL_ANNO_FILE) $(SFC_LEVEL) $(EXTRA_FIRRTL_OPTIONS) $(MFC_LOWERING_OPTIONS)
 	rm -rf $(GEN_COLLATERAL_DIR)
 	$(call run_jar_scala_main,$(TAPEOUT_CLASSPATH),barstools.tapeout.transforms.GenerateModelStageMain,\
 		--no-dedup \
@@ -216,12 +223,12 @@ $(SFC_MFC_TARGETS) &: $(TAPEOUT_CLASSPATH_TARGETS) $(FIRRTL_FILE) $(FINAL_ANNO_F
 		--annotation-file $(FINAL_ANNO_FILE) \
 		--log-level $(FIRRTL_LOGLEVEL) \
 		--allow-unrecognized-annotations \
-		-X $(SFC_LEVEL) \
-		$(EXTRA_FIRRTL_OPTIONS))
+		-X $(shell cat $(SFC_LEVEL)) \
+		$(shell cat $(EXTRA_FIRRTL_OPTIONS)))
 	-mv $(SFC_FIRRTL_BASENAME).lo.fir $(SFC_FIRRTL_FILE) 2> /dev/null # Optionally change file type when SFC generates LowFIRRTL
-	@if [ $(SFC_LEVEL) = low ]; then cat $(SFC_ANNO_FILE) | jq 'del(.[] | select(.target | test("io.cpu"))?)' > $(TMP_DIR)/unnec-anno-deleted.sfc.anno.json; fi
-	@if [ $(SFC_LEVEL) = low ]; then cat $(TMP_DIR)/unnec-anno-deleted.sfc.anno.json | jq 'del(.[] | select(.class | test("SRAMAnnotation"))?)' > $(TMP_DIR)/unnec-anno-deleted2.sfc.anno.json; fi
-	@if [ $(SFC_LEVEL) = low ]; then cat $(TMP_DIR)/unnec-anno-deleted2.sfc.anno.json > $(SFC_ANNO_FILE) && rm $(TMP_DIR)/unnec-anno-deleted.sfc.anno.json && rm $(TMP_DIR)/unnec-anno-deleted2.sfc.anno.json; fi
+	@if [ $(shell cat $(SFC_LEVEL)) = low ]; then cat $(SFC_ANNO_FILE) | jq 'del(.[] | select(.target | test("io.cpu"))?)' > $(TMP_DIR)/unnec-anno-deleted.sfc.anno.json; fi
+	@if [ $(shell cat $(SFC_LEVEL)) = low ]; then cat $(TMP_DIR)/unnec-anno-deleted.sfc.anno.json | jq 'del(.[] | select(.class | test("SRAMAnnotation"))?)' > $(TMP_DIR)/unnec-anno-deleted2.sfc.anno.json; fi
+	@if [ $(shell cat $(SFC_LEVEL)) = low ]; then cat $(TMP_DIR)/unnec-anno-deleted2.sfc.anno.json > $(SFC_ANNO_FILE) && rm $(TMP_DIR)/unnec-anno-deleted.sfc.anno.json && rm $(TMP_DIR)/unnec-anno-deleted2.sfc.anno.json; fi
 	firtool \
 		--format=fir \
 		--dedup \
@@ -232,7 +239,7 @@ $(SFC_MFC_TARGETS) &: $(TAPEOUT_CLASSPATH_TARGETS) $(FIRRTL_FILE) $(FINAL_ANNO_F
 		--disable-annotation-classless \
 		--disable-annotation-unknown \
 		--mlir-timing \
-		--lowering-options=$(MFC_LOWERING_OPTIONS) \
+		--lowering-options=$(shell cat $(MFC_LOWERING_OPTIONS)) \
 		--repl-seq-mem \
 		--repl-seq-mem-file=$(MFC_SMEMS_CONF) \
 		--repl-seq-mem-circuit=$(MODEL) \
@@ -361,7 +368,7 @@ run-binaries-debug: check-binaries $(addsuffix .run.debug,$(BINARIES))
 
 %.run.debug: %.check-exists $(SIM_DEBUG_PREREQ) | $(output_dir)
 ifneq (none,$*)
-	riscv64-unknown-elf-objdump -D $* > $(call get_sim_out_name,$*).dump
+	riscv64-unknown-elf-objdump -D -S $* > $(call get_sim_out_name,$*).dump
 endif
 	(set -o pipefail && $(NUMA_PREFIX) $(sim_debug) $(PERMISSIVE_ON) $(call get_common_sim_flags,$*) $(VERBOSE_FLAGS) $(call get_waveform_flag,$(call get_sim_out_name,$*)) $(PERMISSIVE_OFF) $* </dev/null 2> >(spike-dasm > $(call get_sim_out_name,$*).out) | tee $(call get_sim_out_name,$*).log)
 
diff --git a/variables.mk b/variables.mk
index 2beec438..ac939980 100644
--- a/variables.mk
+++ b/variables.mk
@@ -221,6 +221,10 @@ sim_files              ?= $(build_dir)/sim_files.f
 # single file that contains all files needed for VCS or Verilator simulation (unique and without .h's)
 sim_common_files       ?= $(build_dir)/sim_files.common.f
 
+SFC_LEVEL ?= $(build_dir)/.sfc_level
+EXTRA_FIRRTL_OPTIONS ?= $(build_dir)/.extra_firrtl_options
+MFC_LOWERING_OPTIONS ?= $(build_dir)/.mfc_lowering_options
+
 #########################################################################################
 # java arguments used in sbt
 #########################################################################################
@@ -254,7 +258,7 @@ endef
 # (1) - sbt project to assemble
 # (2) - classpath file(s) to create
 define run_sbt_assembly
-	cd $(base_dir) && $(SBT) ";project $(1); set assembly / assemblyOutputPath := file(\"$(2)\"); assembly"
+	cd $(base_dir) && $(SBT) ";project $(1); set assembly / assemblyOutputPath := file(\"$(2)\"); assembly" && touch $(2)
 endef
 
 FIRRTL_LOGLEVEL ?= error