Simulation Input and Output Data Streams - 2023.2 English - UG1076

AI Engine Tools and Flows User Guide (UG1076)
Document ID
UG1076
Release Date
2023-12-04
Version
2023.2 English

The AI Engine simulator supports both a CSV and TXT file format as inputs and outputs to the simulator.

Starting in 2023.2, there is a new CSV-based file format introduced for simulation input. CSV can be used instead of text-based file format for PLIO based simulation. To generate the CSV based file format from an existing TXT file, AMD provides a utility script. You can run the below command passing the input TXT file:

$XILINX_VITIS/data/emulation/scripts/aiesim_convert_plio_txt2csv.py -txt <input.txt> --datawidth <n> --buswidth <n> --complex (optional)
  • -txt is used to specify the input txt file
  • --datawidth to specify AIE kernel data type width 32, 64, etc.
  • --buswidth is the PLIO width 32, 64, 128, etc.
  • --complex to specify that the AI Engine data type is complex.

For more details on the options available in the script, use the --help option.

The generated CSV file format has columns and rows as shown below.

Where,
  • DATA:<n> is the command to represent the data values. The argument n is the value to indicate the number of times data should be repeated. The default value of n is 1.
    • The number of D columns is PLIO width / Data width of the AIE kernel.
  • TLAST and TKEEP are optional columns to indicate the values to be driven with the data beat. Default value of TKEEP is -1 and TLAST is 0.
  • STALL:<n> represents empty cycle(s). The argument n indicates the number of empty cycles from the PL domain. Default value of n is 1.
  • COMMENT is used to add notes for better readability of the input file.

The following section describes the CSV and TXT formats.