Provided by:
alliance_5.0-20110203-4_i386 
NAME
asimut - A simulation tool for hardware descriptions
SYNOPSIS
asimut [options] [root_file] [pattern_file] [result_file]
DESCRIPTION
asimut is a logical simulation tool for hardware descriptions. It
compiles and loads a complete hardware description written in VHDL
(Very high speed integrated circuits Hardware Description Language).
The hardware description may be structural (a hierarchy of instances)
or behavioural. Only a subset of VHDL is supported. Descriptions that
do not match this subset cause a syntax error during compilation. See
vhdl(5) for detailed information about the supported subset of VHDL.
Once a hardware description is loaded, asimut looks for a simulation
pattern description file. This file is to be written in pat format.
The file is compiled, loaded and linked with the hardware description.
Then, the simulation is started. When patterns are processed, a result
file in pat format is produced.
If a save action has been requested in the pattern description file
(see pat (5)), asimut creates also a save file representing the state
of the description at the end of the simulation of the last pattern.
The save file is named root_file.sav, where root_file is the name of
the description.
The save file can be used in a later simulation sequence to initialize
the state of the (same) hardware description before the simulation
begins. Using this mechanism, a large sequence of patterns can be
breaked onto several small sequences, each one initializing the
hardware description with the save file resulted from the previous
sequence.
asimut reads several parameters from the environment variables :
MBK_CATA_LIB list of directories containing description and
pattern files (using $PATH syntax). The default
path is the current directory (see mbk(1)).
MBK_WORK_LIB specifies the current working directory. The
working directory idicates the place where all
output files are written.
MBK_CATAL_NAME Indicates the file where the behavioral description
files are listed. This file is used to leaf cells
of a structural description.(see mbk(1))
MBK_IN_LO file extension for structural entity. (see mbk(1))
VH_BEHSFX list of file extensions for behavioural entities
(using $PATH syntax). The default file extension is
vbe.
VH_PATSFX list of file extensions for pattern description
entities (using $PATH syntax). The default file
extension is pat.
VH_DLYSFX list of file extensions for delays description
entities (using $PATH syntax). The default file
extension is dly.
VH_MAXERR maximum number of errors allowed during simulation
phase. If the number of errors occured during
simulation reaches VH_MAXERR, asimut stops the
simulation at the end of processing the current
pattern. Patterns following the current pattern
remain unprocessed and are reproduced in the result
file. The default value of VH_MAXERR is 10.
root_file is the name of the description.
By default asimut looks for a structural description. It uses the
MBK_IN_LO environment variables to identify both the format and the
extension of structural description files. To load structural VHDL
files MBK_IN_LO must be set to vst.
To load a pure behavioural description -b option must be specified. In
such a case asimut loads a data flow VHDL description file. The
VH_BEHSFX environment variable gives the extensions to be used.
pattern_file is the entity name of the pattern description. The file
containing this entity must be named pattern_file.ext , where ext is
one of the extension specified in VH_PATSFX.
result_file is the result file produced by asimut. The result file is a
pattern description file with the extension specified by VH_PATSFX.
OPTIONS
-b consider the root_file description as a behavioural
description
-backdelay [min, max, typ] delay_file
use file delay_file.ext for delays backannotation,
where ext is one of the extension specified in
VH_DLYSFX.
-bdd use BDDs (Binary Decision Diagram) to represent
expressions. Using this option makes the simulation
be two times faster but increases memory
requirement
-c run only the compilation stage
-core core_file at the first error encountered, dump the state of
the circuit in both an ascii file (suffixed .cor)
and a binary save file (suffixed .sav) which can be
used as initialization file in a further session.
If the -nores option is specified a pattern file is
also produced.
-dbg[sbpldc] call the debugger (developper usage)
-defaultdelay (-dd) only null delays (no after clause in the VHDL file)
are changed if backannotated delays or fixed delays
are specified.
-fixeddelay value (-fd value)
all delays of the description are fixed to value.
-h display this help file
-i value initialize all signals of the description with
value. Value can be 0 or 1
-i save_file read a save file and use it to initialize the state
of the description before processing the first
pattern (the file name cannot be 1 nor 0)
-inspect instance_name
produce a pattern file corresponding to the
interface of the instance identified by instance-
name
-l n print at most n characters for pattern labels. The
default value for n is 15.
-nores do not generate result file
-p n load at most n patterns from input pattern file
each time. Using this feature reduces memory
allocation when a great number of patterns are to
be simulated. In addition after the n patterns have
been processed, the simulation result is printed in
the result pattern file. The default value for n is
0 which makes the whole pattern file be loaded.
-t trace signals when making BDDs (developper usage).
-transport use transport delay model (default is inertial).
-zerodelay (-zd) all the delays of the VHDL description are supposed
to be null delays.
EXAMPLE
asimut -b -i init_add adder_32 adder_patterns res_add
simulates a behavioural description held in the file named
'adder_32.vbe using the pattern file `adder_patterns.pat'. The
simulation results is written into 'res_add.pat' and the description is
initialized with the values contained in 'init_add.sav'.
DIAGNOSTICS
Register initializations in the pattern file allows changing the value
of a register into a known value. However, using this feature to
initialize a register before executing the first pattern is not
recommended. Registers value (defined by the initialization statement)
may be overwritten since description has not a coherent state before
the first pattern.
SEE ALSO
vhdl(5), pat(5), genpat(1), mbk(1)