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What's new at Fintronic

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Support for Verilog 2001

Third party tools integrated with FinSim

Super FinSim can save the state of the simulator and restart the simulator later on. Both save and restart operations are performed at very high speed (e.g. 5-6 seconds for saving and 2-3 seconds for restarting simulation images of 256MB).
This feature can be used both to recover after a hardware failure, or to bring the simulation in a certain state, save it and then restart it on many machines simultaneously in order to perform various tests with different stimuli starting from the desired state. This way one does not need to repeat the part where the simulation is brought in the desired state. As an example, one may wish to save the state after the boot cycle is completed and then restart it in order to perform the various tests.

1. Saving a simulation.

FinSim allows the user to save the state of a simulation in one of two ways. For both cases the user first edits a file with all the command line options for the simulator and runs the simulation using "-cf <file>"

   a. Using the $save("suffix") system task.

      The user inserts in the Verilog design at the desired time(s) calls to the system task       $save. The simulation is saved in the file(s) finstate.<suffix> on Linux and <name of       original simulator>.<suffix> on Solaris.

   b. Using the interactive command save <suffix>

      In the interactive mode the user issues the command save <suffix>. The simulation is       saved in the file(s) finstate.<suffix> on Linux and <name of original
      simulator>.<suffix> on Solaris. To get to the interactive mode, one can either start       the simulation in the interactive mode from the beginning with the "-i" option
      (specified in the command file) , or can insert a $stop in the Verilog source code or       can type a CTRL-C while a batch simulation is running.

The following notes apply to saved simulations regardless of how they
were saved except where noted.

The simulation state is always saved at the end of the current simulation time. If the design has PLI all misctf routines are invoked with reason 'reason_save'. All of the user's PLI data structures in memory are saved and restored automatically by FinSim however, the user is responsible for saving the state of any file/socket opened using PLI when the misctf routine is called with reason 'reason_save'.

In the interactive mode, if the <suffix> is omitted, the state will be saved in finstate.sav on Linux and <name of original simulator>.sav on Solaris. The system task $save requires a string as its only argument.

2. Restarting a saved simulation.

To restart a saved simulation, the user has to set the environment variable FIN_RESTART_ARGS to "+fin_restart+<suffix> -cf <file>" and call TOP.sim:

for csh

     setenv FIN_RESTART_ARGS "+fin_restart+<suffix> -cf <file>"
     TOP.sim

for sh

    set FIN_RESTART_ARGS="+fin_restart+<suffix> -cf <file>"
    export FIN_RESTART_ARGS
    TOP.sim

<suffix> is the suffix of the saved simulation and <file> contains all command line options for TOP.sim. FinSim allows the user to provide extra plus arguments when the simulation is restarted. This is useful for instance when the design is written such that it generates/applies different test vectors based on one or more plus args provided at runtime. The user can save the state of the simulation when the initialization sequence is complete and restart the same saved simulation multiple times each with different plus arguments causing the test bench to generate/apply different test vectors for each run. Please note that in order for plus arguments to be evaluated at runtime, the design must be compiled with the option +no_plusargs_substitution to finvc. All plus arguments should be specified in <file>. All other arguments specified when the simulation is restarted will be ignored since the ones in the original run have already been evaluated and are therefore part of the saved image.

If the design has PLI all misctf routines are invoked with reason 'reason_restart'. All of the user's PLI data structures in memory are restored automatically by finsim, however the user is responsible for restoring the state of any file/socket opened using PLI in the initial run when his misctf routine is called with reason 'reason_restart'.

IMPORTANT: Please note that in order to run a new simulation, one has to unsetenv FIN_RESTART_ARGS to avoid restarting a saved one.

		What is new @ Fintronic ?

About Fintronic What's new at Fintronic What our customers are saying... Support for Verilog 2001 Third party tools integrated with FinSim		Super FinSim can save the state of the simulator and restart the simulator later on. Both save and restart operations are performed at very high speed (e.g. 5-6 seconds for saving and 2-3 seconds for restarting simulation images of 256MB). This feature can be used both to recover after a hardware failure, or to bring the simulation in a certain state, save it and then restart it on many machines simultaneously in order to perform various tests with different stimuli starting from the desired state. This way one does not need to repeat the part where the simulation is brought in the desired state. As an example, one may wish to save the state after the boot cycle is completed and then restart it in order to perform the various tests. 1. Saving a simulation. FinSim allows the user to save the state of a simulation in one of two ways. For both cases the user first edits a file with all the command line options for the simulator and runs the simulation using "-cf <file>" a. Using the $save("suffix") system task. The user inserts in the Verilog design at the desired time(s) calls to the system task $save. The simulation is saved in the file(s) finstate.<suffix> on Linux and <name of original simulator>.<suffix> on Solaris. b. Using the interactive command save <suffix> In the interactive mode the user issues the command save <suffix>. The simulation is saved in the file(s) finstate.<suffix> on Linux and <name of original simulator>.<suffix> on Solaris. To get to the interactive mode, one can either start the simulation in the interactive mode from the beginning with the "-i" option (specified in the command file) , or can insert a $stop in the Verilog source code or can type a CTRL-C while a batch simulation is running. The following notes apply to saved simulations regardless of how they were saved except where noted. The simulation state is always saved at the end of the current simulation time. If the design has PLI all misctf routines are invoked with reason 'reason_save'. All of the user's PLI data structures in memory are saved and restored automatically by FinSim however, the user is responsible for saving the state of any file/socket opened using PLI when the misctf routine is called with reason 'reason_save'. In the interactive mode, if the <suffix> is omitted, the state will be saved in finstate.sav on Linux and <name of original simulator>.sav on Solaris. The system task $save requires a string as its only argument. 2. Restarting a saved simulation. To restart a saved simulation, the user has to set the environment variable FIN_RESTART_ARGS to "+fin_restart+<suffix> -cf <file>" and call TOP.sim: for csh setenv FIN_RESTART_ARGS "+fin_restart+<suffix> -cf <file>" TOP.sim for sh set FIN_RESTART_ARGS="+fin_restart+<suffix> -cf <file>" export FIN_RESTART_ARGS TOP.sim <suffix> is the suffix of the saved simulation and <file> contains all command line options for TOP.sim. FinSim allows the user to provide extra plus arguments when the simulation is restarted. This is useful for instance when the design is written such that it generates/applies different test vectors based on one or more plus args provided at runtime. The user can save the state of the simulation when the initialization sequence is complete and restart the same saved simulation multiple times each with different plus arguments causing the test bench to generate/apply different test vectors for each run. Please note that in order for plus arguments to be evaluated at runtime, the design must be compiled with the option +no_plusargs_substitution to finvc. All plus arguments should be specified in <file>. All other arguments specified when the simulation is restarted will be ignored since the ones in the original run have already been evaluated and are therefore part of the saved image. If the design has PLI all misctf routines are invoked with reason 'reason_restart'. All of the user's PLI data structures in memory are restored automatically by finsim, however the user is responsible for restoring the state of any file/socket opened using PLI in the initial run when his misctf routine is called with reason 'reason_restart'. IMPORTANT: Please note that in order to run a new simulation, one has to unsetenv FIN_RESTART_ARGS to avoid restarting a saved one.