The VDK Debug perspective becomes available after the Synopsys simulation tools are installed. This perspective presents the user interface of the Synopsys VP Explorer tool.
The Design Browser view displays the hierarchy of module instances and tracks the
state of a running simulation. The view communicates directly with the simulator when updating
the states of modules, ports, and signals. Whenever the simulation is suspended, the view
displays the actual values of ports, signals, and variables in a tree structure.
- The left pane of the view displays all module instances in the current simulation.
- The right pane of the view displays all members of the module instance selected in the
left pane:
- Ports and exports
- Memories and registers
- Signals and other primitive channels
- Processes (SystemC methods and threads)
- Member variables
- Other SystemC objects
- Monitors that have been attached to the design
The Breakpoints view tracks the list of breakpoints set by the user:
- The State column allows you to enable or disable the selected breakpoint. The context menu opened on the selected row offers options to manage the state of the selected breakpoint or all breakpoints.
- The Type column describes the type of the selected breakpoint. This type is also shown in the simulation location of the status bar when the breakpoint is hit. The tooltip on the column header shows the summary of all supported types of breakpoints.
- The Location column displays the full path of the object for which the breakpoint is defined. Global breakpoints show "/" (slash) as the path. The location is also shown in the simulation location of the status bar when the breakpoint is hit.
- The Hit Count column displays the number of breakpoint hits since the creation of the breakpoint.
- The Ignore count column displays the number of remaining hits after which execution will be stopped. The value can be adjusted. The value of zero is used by default and means that execution will stop next time the breakpoint is hit.
- The TCL callback column displays the Tcl command that will be executed when the simulation is stopped because of this breakpoint. The value can be entered and should be a valid Tcl expression. The default is no Tcl command executed for the breakpoint.
The VP Disassembly view displays the program currently executed on a virtual prototype
representing the target processor. If the virtual prototype contains the model of the
processor that has been instrumented, the VP Disassembly view shows the instructions
being executed, with the associated disassembled code and symbols, and enables you to set
breakpoints on the running program.
- The Address field indicates the value of the program counter in the selected core. The value is put in braces to indicate that it depends on the register.
- The Core field indicates the currently selected core.
- In the BP (“breakpoint”) column, the green arrow indicates the program counter.
- The Symbol column displays software labels (if any).
- The Address column displays addresses of the instructions.
- The Instruction column displays the hexadecimal version of the instructions.
- The Disassembly column displays the disassembled instructions.
- The status bar at the bottom of the view displays the simulation time for the core and the current context (process or thread) that runs on the core. The status of the core is shown by the icon at the right of the status bar.
The Simulation Output view displays the output of the running simulation. You can copy, paste and find strings in the output. By default, this view is cleared each time a new simulation is started. This behavior can be toggled off using the Clear Simulation Output on simulation start option.