Running the Vector Adder Example Application

Section 10.5 of the Convey PDK Reference Manual (.pdf) explains how to run the sample software application. It has been reproduced below in brief.

Compiling the Project

The rev version installed on the Convey machine is from 2012-03-19; to copy the sample app's source code run:

cd ~
mkdir pdk_sample
cp -r /opt/convey/pdk/latest/hc-1/examples/* pdk_sample

To make the sample project, first make sure you have setup your environment variables, then run:

cd ~/pdk_sample/cae_pers_vadd/SampleAppVadd/
make

This compiles both an emulator (CaeSimPers) and a C program that makes a coprocessor call to use the vector adder (UserApp.exe).

Run the Project

There are three ways to run your project:

1. A software simulation of the FPGA design
2. A hardware simulation (ModelSim) of the FPGA design
3. The actual implementation (C code, Verilog code). The bitfile was previously compiled, nicknamed, and added to a known file location (/opt/convey/personalties/...).

There are some scripts that can be used to run the various projects.

The runcp (i.e. run coprocessor) script located in the SampleAppVadd can be used to run the application in HW which sets the appropriate environment variables and runs the UserApp.exe:

  ./runcp

The run script located in the SampleAppVadd can be used to run the application using the software simulation of the FPGA design.

  ./run

Using the "-vsim" option, either script can be used to run the application using the hardware simulation (ModelSim). The "-vsim" option sets the environment variable CNY_CAE_EMULATOR to ./run_simulation:

  ./runcp -vsim
      or
  ./run -vsim

To summarize the important environment variables:

Environment Variables	Software	ModelSim	Hardware
CNY_SIM_THREAD	libcpSimLib2.so	libcpSimLib2.so	unset
CNY_CAE_EMULATOR	<location for CaeSimPers>	./run_simulation	unset

Interactive Mode for ModelSim Simulation

The sample project will default to command line mode when using the -vsim flag. Add the following line in the ./sim/Makefile to have it start in interactive mode:

USER_SIM_OPTIONS = -i

You can find the custom personality under testbench->cae_fpga->ae_top->core->cae_pers. Once you have a wave format that you want to automatically load, save it (File->Save Format).

Alternatively, add the $wlfdumpvars line to the sim/tb_user.v file:

// To trace everything
$wlfdumpvars(0, testbench);
// To trace cae_pers module and 5 levels below
$wlfdumpvars(5,testbench.cae_fpga0.ae_top.core.cae_pers);

Then include that file in the sim/Makefile by adding this line this line: CNY_PDK_TB_USER_VLOG += ./tb_user.v

This will create a vsim.wlf file in the sim directory. You can view the waveform using the terminal command

vsim -view vsim.wlf