create_cell - 2023.2 English

Vivado Design Suite Tcl Command Reference Guide (UG835)

Document ID

UG835

Release Date

2023-10-18

Version

2023.2 English

Create cells in the current design

Syntax

create_cell ‑reference <arg> [‑black_box] [‑quiet] [‑verbose] <cells>...

Usage

Name	Description
`-reference`	Library cell or design which cells reference
`[-black_box]`	Create black box instance
`[-quiet]`	Ignore command errors
`[-verbose]`	Suspend message limits during command execution
`<cells>`	Names of cells to create

Description

Add cells to the netlist of the current Synthesized or Implemented design.

Note: You cannot add cells to library macros, or macro-primitives.

New cell instances can be added to the top-level of the design, or hierarchically within any module of the design. Instances can reference an existing cell from the library or design source files, or a black box instance can be added that reference cells that have not yet been created.

Netlist editing changes the in-memory view of the netlist in the current design. It does not change the files in the source fileset, or change the persistent design on the disk. Changes made to the netlist may be saved to a design checkpoint using the write_checkpoint command, or may be exported to a netlist file such as Verilog, VHDL, or EDIF, using the appropriate write_* command.

Note: Netlist editing is not allowed on the elaborated RTL design.

This command returns the name of the created cell instance or instances.

Arguments

-reference <arg> - (Required) The library cell or source file module referenced by the new cell instances.

-black_box - (Optional) Define a black box instance of the specified reference cell. Use this argument when the reference cell does not exist yet, but you would like to create a black box instance of the cell for a top-down design approach.

-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.

<cells> - (Required) Instance names of the cells to create. The instance name can be specified as a hierarchical name, from the top-level of the design. In this case, you must use the hierarchy separator character in the hierarchical instance name. You can determine the current hierarchy separator with the get_hierarchy_separator command.

Examples

The following example creates three new cell instances of the or1200_cpu module with the specified instance names:

create_cell -reference or1200_cpu myCell1 myCell2 myCell3

The following example sets the hierarchy separator character, then creates a black box instance for the referenced cell, specifying a hierarchical instance name:

set_hierarchy_separator |
create_cell -reference dmaBlock -black_box usbEngine0|myDMA

Note: The tool will return an error when -black_box is used, but the -reference cell already exists.