BKU / RVC / CADENCE COLLABORATION

LAB 1 - SIMULATION

© 2021 Renesas Design Vietnam Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

 Overview
 This Lab will familiarize you with one of Cadence simulation tool - Xcelium.

 This Lab will cover the following:

 How to use Xcelium for execute simulation

 How to generate Waveform file by Xcelium
 How to debug by using GUI (Graphic User Interface)
 In this material, command-line instructions are shown with gray background, for example:

%> mkdir simulation_env

%> cd simulation_env

© 2021 Renesas Design Vietnam Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Page 2
 Getting Started
 Firstly, please create the tree folder as below:  To do that, execute below
${Student_ID} commands:
|-- ouput  Output folder %> cd vlsi
|-- design  Used to store your output design %> mkdir {Student_ID}
`-- doc  Used to store your output document %> cd {Student_ID}
|-- work  Working folder %> mkdir output
|-- simulation_env  Simulation’s work-place %> mkdir output/design
|-- synthesis_env  Synthesis’s work-place %> mkdir output/doc
`-- lec_env  Equivalence checking’s work-place %> mkdir work
%> mkdir work/simulation_env
%> mkdir work/synthesis_env
%> mkdir work/lec_env

© 2021 Renesas Design Vietnam Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Page 3
 Simulate with Xcelium (1/2)
 Step 1: Change directory to simulation_env folder. In this Lab 1, we will work at this place:
%> cd work/simulation_env
 Step 2: Copy Design file and Testbench file into this place.

 Step 3: Execute below commands to get permission for using Xcelium:

%> cd /home/share_file/cadence/
%> source add_path
%> source add_license
%> cd -
The last command “cd -” use to turn back to simulation_env directory

 Step 4: Execute “xrun -access rw -licqueue -64BIT -l run.log ${testbench_file} ${design_file}”

For example:
%> xrun -access rw -licqueue -64BIT -l run.log testbench.v bound_flasher.v
© 2021 Renesas Design Vietnam Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Page 4
 Simulate with Xcelium (2/2)
 Step 5: After simulation finish, you can check the simulation result via Log file “run.log”
%> vi run.log
 Step 6: Each time you want to execute simulation, you need to perform Step 3 -> Step 4 again.
It may inconvenience. To avoid that, you can add all commands into 1 file (ex “go_sim” file):

Don’t forget to
add this line

After that, for simulation, you can execute only: %> source go_sim
WARNING: The simulation time might less than 5 minutes. If it over 5 minutes, it might hang-
up.
When it hang-up, please press “Ctrl + C” to stop the simulation
© 2021 Renesas Design Vietnam Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Page 5
 Generate Waveform file
 Step 1: Add following code lines into the testbench file:
initial begin
$recordfile ("waves");
$recordvars ("depth=0", testbench);
end
Must be same
 Step 2: Re-execute simulation. End simulation
WARNING: Before execute simulation with
dumping Waveform, please ensure that
your Testbench has the “$finish” code line
to end the simulation

 Step 3: After simulation finish, check that the Waveform

file has been dumped – “waves.dsn” and “waves.trn”

© 2021 Renesas Design Vietnam Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Page 6
 Open Waveform by GUI (1/4)
 Step 1: Execute below commands to get permission for using Xcelium:
%> cd /home/share_file/cadence/
%> ssource add_path
%> source add_license
%> cd -
 Step 2: Execute %> simvision -64 &

 Step 3: Like above, you can add all command into 1 file (ex “go_gui” file) and execute only:
%> source go_gui
Don’t forget to
add this line

© 2021 Renesas Design Vietnam Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Page 7
 Open Waveform by GUI (2/4)
 Step 4: The GUI will be opened like below

Tool bar

Waveform’s
display area
Signal
name
area
Signal name
area

© 2021 Renesas Design Vietnam Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Page 8
 Open Waveform by GUI (3/4)
 Step 5: Click “File” -> “Open Database”  Step 6: Choose Waveform file -> “Open &
Dismiss”

© 2021 Renesas Design Vietnam Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Page 9
 Open Waveform by GUI (4/4)
 Step 7: Select Design -> Select signals -> Signal’s wave will be displayed

Select design

Signal’s wave
Select
signals

© 2021 Renesas Design Vietnam Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Page 10
 Some useful buttons in GUI (1/3)
 Zoom In (+) - Zoom Out (-) - Zoom Full (=)  Auto add to Wave-view button
buttons When this button active (red light), click on to any signal
will add it to Wave-view automatically.
When this button in-active, you need to press “Ctrl + W”
to add targeted signal to Wave-view

© 2021 Renesas Design Vietnam Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Page 11
 Some useful buttons in GUI (2/3)
 Open Source code Browser button

Select signal then Click

© 2021 Renesas Design Vietnam Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Page 12
 Some useful buttons in GUI (3/3)
 Open Schematic Tracer button

Select signal then Click

© 2021 Renesas Design Vietnam Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Page 13
 THANK YOU FOR YOUR LISTENING

© 2021 Renesas Design Vietnam Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Page 14