apply_hw_ila_trigger - 2020.2 English - UG835

Vivado Design Suite Tcl Command Reference Guide (UG835)
Document ID
UG835
Release Date
2020-11-18
Version
2020.2 English

Apply trigger at startup init values to an ILA core in the design

Syntax

apply_hw_ila_trigger [‑ila_cell <arg>] [‑quiet] [‑verbose] [<file>]

Usage

Name Description
[-ila_cell] Apply trigger settings to this ila cell
[-quiet] Ignore command errors
[-verbose] Suspend message limits during command execution
[<file>] ILA startup trigger settings file

Categories

Debug

Description

Apply a trigger configuration file to the bitstream of a design, to support ILA trigger at startup.

This command is used to configure the trigger settings of an ILA core in a design bitstream (.bit) file, so that the ILA debug core is armed to trigger on events immediately after device configuration and startup. This allows data to be captured from the earliest stages of device activity, which would not be possible through the use of the Hardware Manager feature of the Vivado Design Suite, and the run_hw_ila command.

The apply_hw_ila_trigger command reads a trigger configuration file written by run_hw_ila -file and applies the various trigger settings to the ILA core in the implemented design. The trigger configuration for the ILA core then become part of the bitstream written by write_bitstream, that is used to program the Xilinx FPGA device.

The process for using the trigger at startup feature includes the following steps:
  1. From the Hardware Manager, use run_hw_ila -file to export the trigger register map file for the ILA core.
  2. Open the implemented design, or the implemented design checkpoint.
  3. Use the apply_hw_ila_trigger command to apply the trigger settings to the in-memory design.
  4. Use the write_bitstream command to write the bitstream with the applied trigger configuration file.
    Note: Be sure to use the write_bitstream command, and not the Flow Navigator commands in the Vivado IDE.
  5. Return to the Hardware Manager, and use program_hw_device to program the hw_device using the new bitstream file.

Once programmed, the new ILA core should immediately arm at startup. In the Vivado logic analyzer feature, you should see the "Trigger Capture Status" for the ILA core is now populated with captured data samples if trigger events or capture conditions have occurred. Refer to the Vivado Design Suite User Guide: Vivado Programming and Debugging (UG908) for more information.

Arguments

-ila_cell <arg> - (Optional) Apply trigger settings to the specified ILA cell. The cell must be specified as an object using the get_cells command.
Note: The trigger configuration file includes the instance information for the ILA cell it applies to. The -ila_cell option is not required, and should only be used to apply the trigger file to a different ILA cell in the design.
-quiet - (Optional) Execute the command quietly, returning no messages from the command. The command also returns TCL_OK regardless of any errors encountered during execution.
Note: Any errors encountered on the command-line, while launching the command, will be returned. Only errors occurring inside the command will be trapped.
-verbose - (Optional) Temporarily override any message limits and return all messages from this command.
Note: Message limits can be defined with the set_msg_config command.

<file> - (Optional) Specify a trigger configuration file that was created by the run_hw_ila -file command.

Example

The following example applies the trigger configurations to the ILA cell instance that is defined in the specified file: 
apply_hw_ila_trigger C:/Data/ila1_triggers.tas

See Also