Modelsim Practical Tutorial--Preface

Objective

Modelsim is a professional simulation software, especially in the version after the Quartus II 11.0, there is no matching their own simulation software, so modelsim into the FPGA design process for the simulation of the first choice of software.

???? Modelsim is a HDL simulation tool that we can use to implement the VHDL or Verilog design

Support the various hardware description Language standards common to IEEE. You can do mixed simulations in two languages, but it is recommended that you only emulate one language.

???? Modelsim a lot of versions, basic PE, LE, SE version, PE for personal version, the least feature, supported operating systems for the 32-bit version of Windows 98/nt/me/2000/xp;le supported operating systems for the 32-bit Linux;se version of the full-featured version, Supports 32-bit operating system Aix,hp-ux, LINUX + solaris,windows 98/nt/me/2000/xp,64-bit operating systems WINDOWS, Aix,linux (ITANIUM-2), HP-UX, SOLARIS, and H P-ux,linux and other platforms.

Modelsim Common versions are available in the Modelsim Xe, Modelsim-altera, Modelsim se Three, where Modelsim xe is a companion to Xilinx's Ise software, Modelsim-altera is a companion to Altera's Quartus II software, and Modelsim SE is a professional version that can be used independently (when it comes to FPGA manufacturer's IP cores in the simulation, it is necessary to call the FPGA vendor's IP library file). The Modelsim version is updated quickly, and the current version supports mixed simulations of VHDL, Verilog, and SystemC. This chapter will introduce the ModelSim6.2 (which is also available on the high version) to hope that readers can simply use the Modelsim to simulate, more in-depth tutorials, or refer to the documentation included with Modelsim after reading this article. An in-depth tutorial can also be found on the URL http://www.model.com/support/.

Modelsim is involved in functional simulation, functional simulation is also one of the FPGA design process, is one of the most time-consuming, because to verify the design of RTL code function correctness, function correctness, including RTL inside each line of code, RTL is involved in each state machine in each state, RTL in each of the conditions involved in each situation and so on, so you can imagine how this will be time-consuming, so efficient use of modelsim is how important, assuming the design of an RTL code, It involves 10 state machines and 20 conditional judgments, each state machine has 10 states, and each condition has 10 cases. Suppose each state machine each state and each condition to judge each situation to modify RTL code once, this need to operate 10*10+20*10=100+200=300 times, assuming that each time to press 10 mouse, that total number of times is 300*10=3000. If the use of mouse window operation this has to be more cumbersome (more design of a few large projects, the mouse also to change), this is more time-consuming, so it is necessary to adopt a script (each modification only call a command to take care of) to operate, save time, save manpower and resources.

This article will be a simple three routines, detailed, meticulous, illustrated to introduce the use of Modelsim process, which involves the mouse window operation step to compile, call the simulation file, add simulation signal, start the simple process of simulation, Also includes calls to Altera's IP core for the simulation process, and finally detailed introduction of scripting methods to simulate, effectively and greatly improve the efficiency of each compilation, simulation, as long as the script through a one-time input, but also can set the parameters of the simulation signal, Avoids the tedious process of mouse window operation after each modification of the RTL code.

Among them, the most practical professional is the last method-script operation, which is the reader must master the method!

Modelsim Practical Tutorial--Preface