Intel® Simics® Simulator for Intel® FPGAs: User Guide

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ID 784383
Date 7/08/2024
Public
Document Table of Contents
Document Table of Contents x
1. About This Document 2. Intel® Simics® Simulator and Virtual Platforms 3. Intel® Simics® Simulator for Intel® FPGAs Device Portfolio 4. Installing the Intel® Simics® Simulator for Intel® FPGAs 5. Getting Started with Intel® Simics® Simulator 6. Debugging Target Software 7. Networking with the Simulated Target System 8. Intel® Simics® Scripting 9. Software Debug Examples with Intel® Simics® Simulator 10. Document Revision History for Intel® Simics® Simulator for Intel FPGAs User Guide A. Intel® Simics® Simulator Command Reference
1. About This Document x
1.1. Documentation Conventions for Examples 1.2. Terminology 1.3. List of Acronyms
2. Intel® Simics® Simulator and Virtual Platforms x
2.1. Device Model and Virtual Platforms 2.2. Intel® Simics® Simulator 2.3. Intel® Simics® Simulator Architecture
2.2. Intel® Simics® Simulator x
2.2.1. Intel® Simics® Simulator for Intel FPGAs Capabilities
4. Installing the Intel® Simics® Simulator for Intel® FPGAs x
4.1. Installing the Intel® Simics® Simulator for Intel® FPGAs on Linux* Systems 4.2. Installing the Intel® Simics® Simulator for Intel® FPGAs on Microsoft Windows* Systems 4.3. Installing Ashling* RiscFree* IDE for Intel® FPGAs 4.4. Intel® Simics® Simulator for Intel® FPGAs Support
5. Getting Started with Intel® Simics® Simulator x
5.1. Simulation Set Up 5.2. Starting the Simulation 5.3. Intel® Simics® Simulator Command-Line Interface (CLI) 5.4. Hardware Inspection 5.5. Intel® Simics® Simulator Timing
5.1. Simulation Set Up x
5.1.1. Initializing an Intel® Simics® Project and Deploying a Virtual Platform 5.1.2. Understanding Target Scripts
5.2. Starting the Simulation x
5.2.1. Starting a Simulation from a Command Prompt 5.2.2. Starting a Simulation with Ashling* RiscFree* IDE
5.3. Intel® Simics® Simulator Command-Line Interface (CLI) x
5.3.1. Version of the Intel® Simics® Simulator for Intel FPGAs Software 5.3.2. Simulation Run Control from CLI 5.3.3. Intel® Simics® Simulator Command Scope 5.3.4. Intel® Simics® Simulator CLI Variables and Operations 5.3.5. Intel® Simics® Simulator CLI Command Completion and Command History 5.3.6. Intel® Simics® Command-Line Interface Help 5.3.7. Capture of CLI Session to a File 5.3.8. Intel® Simics® Simulator File Location and Intel® Simics® Search Path
5.4. Hardware Inspection x
5.4.1. Listing Objects in the Target System 5.4.2. Processor (CPU) Inspection 5.4.3. Device Inspection 5.4.4. Memory Mapping and Memory Inspection 5.4.5. Logging
5.4.2. Processor (CPU) Inspection x
5.4.2.1. Listing Processors 5.4.2.2. Inspect Processor Registers
5.4.3. Device Inspection x
5.4.3.1. Retrieve List of Devices 5.4.3.2. Inspecting Device Registers
5.4.4. Memory Mapping and Memory Inspection x
5.4.4.1. Memory Mapping Inspection 5.4.4.2. Memory Inspection
5.4.5. Logging x
5.4.5.1. Breakpoints on CLI Log Messages
5.5. Intel® Simics® Simulator Timing x
5.5.1. CPU Frequency 5.5.2. CPU Cycles and Steps 5.5.3. Events 5.5.4. Enable Real Time
6. Debugging Target Software x
6.1. Intel® Simics® Debugger and Debug Context 6.2. Capturing Serial Console Output 6.3. Breakpoints 6.4. Debugging Target Software with Symbol Files 6.5. Debugging Target Software with Ashling* RiscFree* Debugger 6.6. Capturing CPU Instruction Execution Trace
6.3. Breakpoints x
6.3.1. Memory Breakpoints 6.3.2. Temporal Breakpoints 6.3.3. CPU Control Register Breakpoints 6.3.4. Hardware Access Breakpoints 6.3.5. CPU Register Breakpoints 6.3.6. Tracing Breakpoints 6.3.7. Text Console Activity Breakpoints
6.4. Debugging Target Software with Symbol Files x
6.4.1. Loading Symbol Files in a Simulation
6.5. Debugging Target Software with Ashling* RiscFree* Debugger x
6.5.1. Remote Debugging with RiscFree* IDE
6.5.1. Remote Debugging with RiscFree* IDE x
6.5.1.1. Remote Debugging With Intel® Simics® Simulation and RiscFree* IDE on the Same System 6.5.1.2. Remote Debugging With Intel® Simics® Simulation and RiscFree* IDE on Different Systems 6.5.1.3. Remote Access to the Target System Serial Console
7. Networking with the Simulated Target System x
7.1. Network Simulation and Service Node 7.2. Connectivity Between Host PC and Target System
7.2. Connectivity Between Host PC and Target System x
7.2.1. Port Forwarding 7.2.2. Transferring Files Between Host PC and Target System 7.2.3. Accessing Target System from Host PC Through HTTP 7.2.4. Networking Commands Reference Table
7.2.1. Port Forwarding x
7.2.1.1. Incoming Port Forwarding 7.2.1.2. Outgoing Port Forwarding
7.2.1.1. Incoming Port Forwarding x
7.2.1.1.1. Example of an SSH Connection with Incoming Port Forwarding
7.2.1.2. Outgoing Port Forwarding x
7.2.1.2.1. Example of SSH Connection With Outgoing Port Forwarding 7.2.1.2.2. Example of SSH Connection via NAPT
7.2.2. Transferring Files Between Host PC and Target System x
7.2.2.1. Transferring Files with SCP service 7.2.2.2. Transferring Files with TFTP service
7.2.2.1. Transferring Files with SCP service x
7.2.2.1.1. Transferring Files With SCP Service via Forwarding Ports 7.2.2.1.2. Transferring Files with SCP from Target System to Host PC via NAPT
7.2.2.2. Transferring Files with TFTP service x
7.2.2.2.1. TFTP Using Forwarding Port 7.2.2.2.2. TFTP via NAPT 7.2.2.2.3. TFTP Using TFTP Server in Intel® Simics® Service Node
8. Intel® Simics® Scripting x
8.1. Scripts in CLI
8.1. Scripts in CLI x
8.1.1. Variables 8.1.2. Command Return Values 8.1.3. Control Flow Commands 8.1.4. Local Variables 8.1.5. Integer Conversion 8.1.6. Accessing Configuration Parameters 8.1.7. Error Handling in Scripts 8.1.8. Script Branches
8.1.8. Script Branches x
8.1.8.1. Script Branches Commands 8.1.8.2. Variables in Script Branches 8.1.8.3. Branch Synchronization 8.1.8.4. Canceling Script Branches 8.1.8.5. Script Branches Restrictions
9. Software Debug Examples with Intel® Simics® Simulator x
9.1. Debugging Linux* User-Mode Application
9.1. Debugging Linux* User-Mode Application x
9.1.1. Debugging a Linux Application with GDB 9.1.2. Debugging a Linux Application with RiscFree* IDE
9.1.1. Debugging a Linux Application with GDB x
9.1.1.1. Debugging with GDB Debug from Host PC Using Forwarding Ports 9.1.1.2. Debugging with GDB from Host PC with Intel® Simics® Simulator GDB Server
1. About This Document
2. Intel® Simics® Simulator and Virtual Platforms
3. Intel® Simics® Simulator for Intel® FPGAs Device Portfolio
4. Installing the Intel® Simics® Simulator for Intel® FPGAs
5. Getting Started with Intel® Simics® Simulator
6. Debugging Target Software
7. Networking with the Simulated Target System
8. Intel® Simics® Scripting
9. Software Debug Examples with Intel® Simics® Simulator
10. Document Revision History for Intel® Simics® Simulator for Intel FPGAs User Guide
A. Intel® Simics® Simulator Command Reference

5.3.8. Intel® Simics® Simulator File Location and Intel® Simics® Search Path

Many Intel® Simics® simulator commands search files based on the current directory. When Intel® Simics® simulator is launched from the command line, the current directory is the project directory in the host terminal from which the Intel® Simics® simulation is launched from. This may be impractical when writing scripts or building new configurations, so Intel® Simics® simulator provides two features to ease directory handling:

  1. Intel® Simics® simulator recognizes some special path markers that are translated before being used:
    1. %simics%: This path marker causes Intel® Simics® simulator to locate the file (following the marker) in the project directory or in any of the installed packages. If not found in the project directory, the simulator starts searching in the newest package, (the one with the highest build-id number).

      For example, %simics%/scripts/foo.simics can be translated to: 

      /home/simicsUser/SimicsInstallDir/project-1/scripts/foo.simics

      or

      /home/simicsUser/SimicsInstallDir/simics/simics-6.0.154/scripts/foo.simics
      Note: If you change the version of Intel® Simics® simulator, %simics% changes as well, so you must use it to refer only to files that you know are present in all Intel® Simics® simulator versions. Also notice that %simics% has no meaning if no file can be found. You can use the command lookup-file or resolve-file to find out how the path is translated (lookup-file “%simics%”).
    2. %script%: Translated to the directory where the currently running script is located. A possible usage is to let a script call another one in the same directory, independently of what the current directory is.

      For example, if the directory baz contains the scripts foo.simics and bar.simics, even if the you use Intel® Simics® simulator with another current directory, it is possible for foo.simics to call bar.simics by issuing the command: 

      run-command-file %script%/bar.simics

      %simics% and %script% are always translated to absolute paths, so they never interact with the next feature, called Intel® Simics® search path. One consequence is that they must always be used in double quotes "%simics%/targets/device/images" to ensure that escaped characters, such as spaces, are used correctly.

  2. Intel® Simics® simulator has a list of paths called Simics Search Path where files are searched when using some specific commands (among others, load-binary, load-file, run-command-file, and run-python-file) and several classes (such as the image class and the tftp server implementation in the service-node). The file is first searched in the current directory, then in all entries of Intel® Simics® Search Path, in order.

    For example, assume that the Intel® Simics® Search Path contains the following directories: 

    /home/simicsUser/project/
/home/simicsUser/scripts/
    And you call the following command: 
    run-command-file test/start-test.simics

    Intel® Simics® simulator searches for the start-test.simics file at the following paths: 

    /home/simicsUser/project/test/start-test.simics
/home/simicsUser/scripts/test/start-test.simics
    You can manipulate the Intel® Simics® Search Path using the add-directory, clear-directories, and list-directories commands. Intel® Simics® Search Path is also used when looking for image files belonging to checkpoints or new configurations. The following capture shows some examples of using these commands to find files: 
    # Intel Simics simulator CLI 
# Assume that the file myfile.simics is located in the directory:
# /home/simicsUser/SimicsInstallDir/simics/simics-intelfpga-6.0.900000002/scripts
# This file just prints a message when executed: This is myfile.simics file.

# Clearing all search path directories
simics> clear-directories
simics> list-directories
The current Intel Simics search path is empty.

# Adding Project dirctory (Not really needed as project dir is in the 
# search path by default)
simics> add-directory “/home/simicsUser/SimicsInstallDir/project-1”
simics> list-directories
The current Intel Simics search path is:
   /home/simicsUser/SimicsInstallDir/project-1

# Looking for the myfile.simics.file (lookup-file command also works)
simics> resolve-file myfile.simics
Not in search path: 'myfile.simics'

# Adding directory where myfile.simics file exists
simics> add-directory "/home/simicsUser/SimicsInstallDir/simics/\
         simics-intelfpga-ext-6.0.234000026/scripts"
simics> list-directories
The current Intel Simics search path is:
   /home/simicsUser/SimicsInstallDir/project-1
   /home/simicsUser/SimicsInstallDir/simics/simics-intelfpga-6.0.900000002/scripts

simics> resolve-file “myfile.simics”
“/home/simicsUser/SimicsInstallDir/simics/simics-intelfpga-6.0.900000002/scripts”

simics> run-command-file myfile.simics
“This is myfile.simics file”
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