Simulator Support in Hardware Emulation - 2024.2 English

The AMD Vitis™ tool uses the AMD Vivado™ logic simulator (xsim) as the default simulator for all platforms.

For data center platforms, hardware emulation supports the U250_XDMA platform with Questa Advanced Simulator. This support does not include features like peer-to-peer (P2P), SlaveBridge, or other features unless explicitly mentioned.

Enabling a third-party simulator requires some additional configuration options during generation of the device binary (.xclbin) and supporting Tcl scripts. The specific requirements for each simulator are discussed below. In addition, you should run the Vivado setup for third-party simulators before using those simulators in Vitis. Specifically, you must pre-compile the simulation models using the compile_sim_lib Tcl command. For more details, see the Vivado Design Suite User Guide: Logic Simulation (UG900) for third-party simulator setup.

Questa

Add the following advanced parameters and Vivado properties to a configuration file for use during linking:

[advanced]
param=hw_emu.simulator=QUESTA
[vivado]
prop=project.__CURRENT__.simulator.questa_install_dir=<Questa_install_dir>"
prop=project.__CURRENT__.compxlib.questa_compiled_library_dir=<Questa_compiled_lib_path>
prop=fileset.sim_1.questa.compile.sccom.cores={16}
prop=fileset.sim_1.questa.elaborate.vopt.more_options={-stats=all}
prop=fileset.sim_1.questa.simulate.vsim.more_options={-stats=all}

After generating the configuration file you can use it in the v++ command line as follows:

v++ -link --config questa_sim.cfg

Xcelium

Add the following advanced parameters and Vivado properties to a configuration file for use during linking:

## Final set of additional options required for running simulation using Xcelium Simulator
[advanced]
param=hw_emu.simulator=XCELIUM
[vivado]
prop=project.__CURRENT__.simulator.xcelium_install_dir=<Xcelium_install_dir>
prop=project.__CURRENT__.compxlib.xcelium_compiled_library_dir=<Xcelium_pre-compiled_lib_path>
prop=fileset.sim_1.xcelium.elaborate.xmelab.more_options={-timescale 1ns/1ps -STATUS}

After generating the configuration file you can use it in the v++ command line as follows:

v++ -link --config xcelium.cfg

VCS

Add the following advanced parameters and Vivado properties to a configuration file for use during linking:

## Final set of additional options required for running simulation using VCS Simulator
[advanced]
param=hw_emu.simulator=VCS
[vivado]
prop=project.__CURRENT__.simulator.vcs_install_dir=<VCS_install_dir>
prop=project.__CURRENT__.compxlib.vcs_compiled_library_dir=<Vcs_pre-compiled_lib_path>
prop=project.__CURRENT__.simulator.vcs_gcc_install_dir=<VCS_gnu_pkg_install_dir>
param=project.alignLibraryPathEnvForVCS=true
prop=fileset.sim_1.vcs.compile.vlogan.more_options={-v2005}

After generating the configuration file you can use it in the v++ command line as follows:

v++ -link --config vcs_sim.cfg

Riviera

Add the following advanced parameters and Vivado properties to a configuration file for use during linking:

## Final set of additional options required for running simulation using VCS Simulator
[advanced]
param=hw_emu.simulator=RIVIERA
[vivado]
prop=project.__CURRENT__.simulator.riviera_install_dir=<Riviera_install_dir>
prop=project.__CURRENT__.compxlib.riviera_compiled_library_dir=<Riviera_pre-compiled_lib_path>
prop=project.__CURRENT__.simulator.riviera_gcc_install_dir=<Riviera_gcc_path>
prop=fileset.sim_1.riviera.simulate.asim.more_options={+access +r}

After generating the configuration file you can use it in the v++ command line as follows:

v++ -link --config riviera.cfg