Using Waveform ILA Trigger and Export Features - 2022.2 English - UG908

Vivado Design Suite User Guide: Programming and Debugging (UG908)
Document ID
UG908
Release Date
2022-10-19
Version
2022.2 English

You can use the icons in the waveform window to arm ILAs and run trigger, stop the trigger, and export ILA data as shown below.

Figure 1. Waveform ILA Trigger and Export Features
Page-1 Sheet.13 Sheet.14 Auto Re-Trigger Auto Re-Trigger Sheet.15 Run Trigger Run Trigger Sheet.16 Run Trigger Immediate Run Trigger Immediate Sheet.17 Stop Trigger Stop Trigger Sheet.18 Export ILA Data Export ILA Data Standard Arrow Standard Arrow.9 Standard Arrow.10 Standard Arrow.11 Standard Arrow.12 Sheet.12 X16755-032717 X16755-032717

Enable Auto Re-Trigger: Select the Enable Auto Re-Trigger button on the Waveform window toolbar to enable Vivado IDE to automatically re-arm the ILA core associated with the Waveform window trigger after a successful trigger+upload+display operation has completed.

The captured data displayed in the Waveform window corresponding to the ILA core is overwritten upon each successful trigger event. The Auto Re-Trigger option can be used with the Run Trigger and Run Trigger Immediate operations. Click the Stop Trigger button to stop the trigger currently in progress.

Run Trigger: Arms the ILA core associated with the Waveform window to detect the trigger event that is defined by the ILA core basic or advanced trigger settings.

Run Trigger Immediate: Arms the ILA core associated with the Waveform window to trigger immediately regardless of the ILA core trigger settings. This command is useful for detecting the "aliveness" of the design by capturing any activity at the probe inputs of the ILA core.

Stop Trigger: Stops the ILA core trigger of the ILA associated with the Waveform window.

Export ILA Data: Captures data from an ILA core and saves it to a file. The data can be captured in either native, .csv, or .vcd format. On clicking this icon on the Waveform window toolbar the following dialog box appears.

Figure 2. Export ILA Data Dialog Box

The ILA core is the name of the ILA debug core to export data for. The format is a selection among Native, CSV, and VCD formats.

  • Native format configures the write_hw_ila_data command to export the ILA data in native ILA format.

    This ILA file can be imported back into Vivado IDE so that you can view previously captured ILA data. The read_hw_ila_data TCL command can be used to import the ILA data back into Vivado IDE as shown in the example below:

    read_hw_ila_data {./iladata.ila}
display_hw_ila_data
  • CSV format configures the write_hw_ila_data command to export the ILA data in the form of a .csv file that can be used to import the data into a spreadsheet or third-party application.
  • VCD file format configures the write_hw_ila_data command to export the ILA data in the form of a .vcd file that can be used to import into a third-party application or viewer.
    Important: While ILA data can be exported in the CSV, VCD, and native ILA format, only the native ILA format can be imported into Vivado. Also, native ILA data imported into Vivado is supported only for offline viewing of previously captured data. The probe signals cannot be used for other purposes such as triggering, etc.