Introduction

As always you can use your standard simulation tools to simulate the VHDL/Verilog generated out from SpinalHDL, but since SpinalHDL 1.0.0 the language integrate an API to write testbenches and test your hardware directly in Scala. This API provide the capabilities to read and write the DUT signals, fork and join simulation processes, sleep and wait until a given condition is filled.

How SpinalHDL simulate the hardware

Behind the scene SpinalHDL is generating a C++ cycle accurate model of your hardware by generating the equivalent Verilog and asking Verilator to convert it into a C++ model.
Then SpinalHDL ask GCC to compile the C++ model into an shared object (.so) and bind it back to Scala via JNR-FFI.
Finaly, as the native Verilator API is rude, SpinalHDL abstract it by providing an simulation multi-threaded API to help the user in his testbench implementation.

This method has several advantage :

  • The C++ simulation model is realy fast to process simulation steps
  • It test the generated Verilog hardware instead of the SpinalHDL internal model
  • It doesn’t require SpinalHDL to be able itself to simulate the hardware (Less codebase, less bugs as Verilator is a reliable tool)

And some limitations :

  • Verilator will only accept to translate Synthetisable Verilog code

Performance

As verilator is currently the simulation backend, the simulation speed is realy high. On a little SoC like Murax my laptop is capable to simulate 1.2 million clock cycles per realtime seconds.

Setup

The SpinalSim with Verilator as backend is supported on both Linux and Windows platforms.

Scala

Don’t forget to add the following in your build.sbt file

scalaVersion := "2.11.6"
addCompilerPlugin("org.scala-lang.plugins" % "scala-continuations-plugin_2.11.6" % "1.0.2")
scalacOptions += "-P:continuations:enable"
fork := true

And you will always need the following imports in your Scala testbench :

import spinal.sim._
import spinal.core._
import spinal.core.sim._

Linux

You will also need a recent version of Verilator installed :

sudo apt-get install git make autoconf g++ flex bison -y  # First time prerequisites
git clone http://git.veripool.org/git/verilator   # Only first time
unsetenv VERILATOR_ROOT  # For csh; ignore error if on bash
unset VERILATOR_ROOT  # For bash
cd verilator
git pull        # Make sure we're up-to-date
git checkout verilator_3_916
autoconf        # Create ./configure script
./configure
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install
echo "DONE"

Windows

In order to get SpinalSim + Verilator working on windows, you have to do the following :

  • Install MSYS2
  • Via MSYS2 get gcc/g++/verilator (for verilator you can compile it from the sources)
  • Add bin and usr\bin of MSYS2 into your windows PATH (ie : C:\msys64\usr\bin;C:\msys64\mingw64\bin)

Then you should be able to run SpinalSim + verilator from your Scala project without having to use MSYS2 anymore.

From a fresh install of MSYS2 MinGW 64-bits, you will have to run the following commands inside the MSYS2 MinGW 64-bits shell (enter commands one by one):

pacman -Syuu
#Close the MSYS2 shell once you're asked to
pacman -Syuu
pacman -S --needed base-devel mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain \
                   git flex\
                   mingw-w64-x86_64-cmake

git clone http://git.veripool.org/git/verilator  
unset VERILATOR_ROOT
cd verilator
git pull        
git checkout verilator_3_916
autoconf      
./configure
export CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH=/usr/include:$CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH
export PATH=/usr/bin/core_perl:$PATH
cp /usr/include/FlexLexer.h ./src

make -j$(nproc)
make install
echo "DONE"
#Add C:\msys64\usr\bin;C:\msys64\mingw64\bin to you windows PATH
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