Adding Protocol Instances to the Wave Window - 2025.2 English - UG900

Vivado Design Suite User Guide: Logic Simulation (UG900)
Document ID
UG900
Release Date
2025-12-17
Version
2025.2 English

You can add any protocol instance present in the design to the wave window. Adding a protocol instance to the wave window triggers Vivado simulator to run protocol analysis on the protocol instance inputs from time 0 regardless of elapsed simulation time. As protocol analysis uses the waveform database (WDB), inputs of all protocol instances are always traced in the waveform database. This behavior occurs even if you did not request input tracing or add the protocol instance to the wave window.

In addition to marking an AXI interface in your IP integrator block design as described in Using the IP Integrator to Mark an AXI Interface to View in the Vivado Simulator section, you can add a protocol instance to the wave window using the Objects window or a Tcl command.

Important: Protocol instances can use more computer resources, it is recommended that you add only the protocol instances you currently need. You can always add additional protocol instances at a later time during the simulation without missing the data.

Perform the following steps to add a protocol instance to the Wave window using the Objects window:

  1. To locate the protocol instance in the Objects window, see the steps described in the section Finding Protocol Instances in the Objects Window.
  2. Add the protocol instance to the Wave window in the following two ways:
    1. Right click the protocol instance and choose Add to Wave.
    2. Drag and drop the protocol instance to the Name column of the Wave window.

Perform the following steps to add a protocol instance to the Wave window using a Tcl command:

  1. To locate the protocol instance in the Objects window, see the steps described in the section Finding Protocol Instances in the Vivado Simulator.
  2. Copy the protocol instance path to the clipboard in the following ways:
    1. Locate the protocol instance in the Objects window. Left-Click the protocol instance to select it and copy the protocol instance path.
    2. Located the protocol instance in the Tcl Console, use your mouse to select the protocol instance path and copy it.
    3. Located the protocol instance using the get_objects Tcl command. Use your mouse to select the text of the protocol instance path in the Tcl Console and copy it. Alternatively, you can get objects together as described in the following section.
  3. Type add_wave and paste the protocol instance name.
Tip: If your protocol instance path contains special characters, surround the path with double braces. For example, add_wave {{path}}.