The IP settings let you specify various project-specific options for IP, as shown in the following figure. For each project you create, you must access the settings for a project again to change the settings.
The IP settings contain the following options:
- Core Containers: Check theUse Core Containers for IP to use the core container feature, which optionally lets you have the IP and all generated output files contained in one compressed binary file with an extension of XCIX. See Using a Core Container for more information.
- Simulation: By default, the two check boxes, Use Precompiled IP simulation libraries and Automatically generate simulation scripts for IP options are checked.
Vivado delivers precompiled libraries for all the Xilinx IP static files to use with the Vivado simulator. When simulation scripts are created, they reference these precompiled libraries. If you are using a third-party simulator you must create these libraries as explained in Vivado Design Suite User Guide: Logic Simulation (UG900).
The Automatically Generate Simulation Scripts for IP option generates simulation scripts for each IP automatically. The Vivado tool places the scripts in the <project name>.ip_user_files directory. See Simulating IP for more information. To disable simulation scripts from being created, uncheck the option.
- Upgrade IP: By default, the Generate log file is checked. This creates an ip_upgrade.log file when you upgrade IP. As you upgrade additional IP they are added to the top of the log file. The log file is stored in the project directory at the root location (where the project XPR file is placed). See Upgrading IP for more information, including how to specify the name and location of the log file using Tcl commands. To disable the log file being created, uncheck the Upgrade IP checkbox.
- Default IP Location: You can use this to set the location in which to create and store your IP sources. By default, the Vivado tools store IP in an RTL project within the project directory structure in the.srcs/sources_1/ip directory.
- When working with revision control systems, it is recommend that you store you IP outside of the project as with other source files.
- Vivado generates all IP output products in a separate <project_name>.gen directory. This separates generated output products from the current sources that reside in <project_name>.srcs directory. This provides a cleaner directory structure to differentiate between IP sources and output products. It also minimizes the number of checked-in files required to re-create the project IPs for most revision control use cases because for many revision control scenarios it is not required to check in the output products.
- When customizing an IP, use the IP Location to set the location where the IP and its output products are stored. Setting the default IP location will persist across multiple Vivado sessions.
- IP Cache: Lets you define how Vivado uses IP caching for the project. Caching options include:
- Cache scope: Options are disabled, local (default setting), or remote. For local, the caching directory is local to the project and the location cannot be changed. The remote option is for a directory that you specify.
- Cache location: Browse to, and select the location for cache. For local, the caching directory is local to the project (project_name.ip_cache) and the location cannot be changed. For remote, it is a directory you specify.
- Clear Cache: Deletes the cache files from the disk by issuing the following command, config_ip_cache, on the Tcl Console:
config_ip_cache -clear_output_repo
For an expanded description of the IP Cache, see Setting the IP Cache.