Simulation and Verification

[watman]

I would like to use hardware co-simulation, but in the menu to enable it (source properties) there are no target boards listed.

The only selectable option in the "Target Board for Hardware Co-Simulation" is "N/A".

This happens in both ISE 13.4 and 14.1 in linux, but on another pc running windows 7 64-bit with ISE 13.2 many target boards are listed, so it doesn't look like I am doing something incorrectly.

I am using linux Mint 12 64-bit, which is based on Ubuntu. Although most versions of linux are not "officially supported", I hope someone is able to help with this, as everything else works perfectly (including impact and chipscope through a platform cable USB2).

[umangp]

Have you installed system edition of Xilinx tools(containing SysGen)?  Can you tell me what are the contents in <your ISE install area>\ISE\sysgen\plugins\compilation\Hardware Co-Simulation ? 

Regards,

Umang

[watman]

Hi Umang, thanks for your reply.

I have installed the Embedded Edition, HW-co-sim is not limited only to the system edition is it?

The version on the windows computer I tried is Webpack and it lists several boards in the HW co-sim option box.

The contents of that directory are:

ls /opt/Xilinx/14.1/ISE_DS/ISE/sysgen/plugins/compilation/Hardware\ Co-Simulation/
KC705                   SP605
ML402                   Spartan-3A DSP 1800A Starter Platform
ML506                   Spartan-3A DSP 3400A Development Platform
ML605                   VC707
New Compilation Target  XtremeDSP Development Kit
SP601                   ZC702

Daniel

[eilert]

Hi,

there are two ways to do HW-Cosim:

One is with ISIM, the other is with Sysgen(using Matlab/Simulink).

The path you have shown refers to the Sysgen targets.

They might be different from the ones supported by ISIM.

(Also I wonder if HW-Cosim is supported at all by the ISIM version that comes with the Webpack.)

Please check exactly the tool versions and licenses you are using and read about the supported features on the xilinx website.

Have a nice simulation

  Eilert

[watman]

I would like to do HW co-sim with ISIM.

From the FAQ:

Q.	Does Hardware CoSimulation require an additional license?
A:	No it does not, it is included as part of the standard FLEXnet licensing model.
Q.	Can I use Hardware CoSimulation with Xilinx WebPack?
A:	Yes you can.

But in any case I am using the full version of ISIM (ISE Embedded Edition).

So there is no license issue and it should work, just there no target boards to select.

[eilert]

Hi,

ok, have you read this

   http://www.xilinx.com/tools/feature/14_1_isim_hw_cosim_qrg.pdf

(Similar documents should be available fo rother tool versions too.)

There you find a list of the supported boards and a short description how to adapt custom-boards.

Also the commands to initialize the boards for HW-Cosim.

When you work via the Project Navigator it might be sufficient to choose the Board in the main Project Properties.

Since ISE 13 you can select boards there too, to simplify the device selection. Maybe this also affects HW-Cosim.

Have a nice simulation

   Eilert

[watman]

Hi,

Yes I read that while looking for a solution.

In the "running from project navigator" steps, it is step 6 c) where there are no boards listed.

I have tried choosing the board in Project properties (they are listed there), and also other boards, and the device used on various boards.

There is nothing wrong with the steps I'm doing because they work when I do it on a windows install, but the boards are just not listed under linux whatever I try.

I tried the command line example from that document (modified to fit my test filenames) and it does compile, though there are multiple driver errors etc in implementation because I haven't set anything up yet. So it seems that ISE is just not listing any boards for some reason, if I can just get a board selected the actual HW co-sim part should work fine.

It may be possible to do it all from the command line if I learn how, but I would prefer the GUI as I am used to it and everything else works.

Daniel

[eilert]

Hi Daniel,

thanks for the additional information on your problem.

I have a linux system too and tried the settings for ISE 14.1.

It worked fine so far.

Something interesting that I recognized was that the device/board selection in the project properties has some influence to the HW-Cosim board selection list.

e.g. if I set the Target to Spartan6, only S6 based boards appear as HW-Cosim Targets, 

       if I select a ML506 board, only ML50* Boards appper.

But if I select a XC9500CPLD, all boards are shown as HW-Cosim targets.

(Maybe you just try this for a short test to see how your system reacts).

However, i was not able to see an empty list.

Only that the selection was disabled if the "Enable HardwareCo-Simulation box" wasn't activated, which you surely have done.

So, if the above things do not help, you seem to have some serious issue with your local installation, but it's not an issue of the linux version in general.

Have you checked the existence and contents of the following file? (e.g. wit h ls or cat)

$XILINX/sysgen/hwcosim/data/hwcosim.bsp

This is where the board descriptions for ISIM are stored. The directory you have inspected before has a different use.

(I'm quite baffled that the hwcosim.bsp file is under the sysgen path too.)

Have a nice simulation

  Eilert

[watman]

Hi Eilert, thanks for your help.

I wrote a long reply while testing things but it all disappeared when I posted, presumably because I took too long.

Trying to remember everything I tried now.

I tried several targets: FPGAs, evaluation boards, and the XC9600 CPLD but still only N/A is listed (see screenshot). I couldn't take a screenshot with the list of boards clicked, but N/A is the only option.

hwcosim.bsp is present in that location and contains what looks like correct board descriptions.

The odd thing is that this issue happens with both 13.4 and 14.1, and I checked the MD5 checksums before installing.

Everything else works fine including normal simulations, coregen, chipscope, impact, planahead etc.

I also tried something else. I enabled HW cosim with the board set to N/A, then copied the fuse command from the ISE messages window and ran it maually after changing N/A to sp605-jtag. It compiled successfully, though there were two "unexpected operator"s:

...

Compiled 5 VHDL Units
Built simulation executable /home/daniel/work/hwsim2/test_isim_beh.exe
Launching the HDL wrapper and bitstream generation process. Running :
hwcosim_compile --board sp605-jtag -s isim/hwcosim.spec -w isim/hwcosim_tmp -o isim/  --project "/home/daniel/work/hwsim2/test_beh.prj" --instance test/uut --clock CLK --flow isim
[: 26: /opt/Xilinx/13.4/ISE_DS/ISE//lib/lin64: unexpected operator
[: 28: /opt/Xilinx/13.4/ISE_DS/ISE/sysgen/lib/lin64:/opt/Xilinx/13.4/ISE_DS/ISE//lib/lin64: unexpected operator
INFO:HWCoSim - Processing module 'jtag'
INFO:HWCoSim - Extracting hardware co-simulation files
INFO:HWCoSim - Synthesizing design under test using XST
INFO:HWCoSim - Merging design under test netlists
INFO:HWCoSim - Synthesizing hardware co-simulation top-level
INFO:HWCoSim - Implementing hardware co-simulation top-level through NGDBuild, MAP and PAR
INFO:HWCoSim - Checking PAR report for timing violations
INFO:HWCoSim - Exporting hardware co-simulation bitstream and project files
Finished HDL wrapper and bitstream generation process.

I don't know how to try the simulation from the command line though, just running test_isim_beh.exe results in a segmentation fault.

[cedevita999]

Hi,

I also have the very same problem with ISE 13.4 on Ubuntu 12.04. Everything works fine on Windows, of course. Does anybody know what could be a solution to this? I tried adjusting paths, but without any visible result. 

I'd really appreciate if somebody came up with a hint.

Thanks!