-- written by D. Bouldin and Narayanan Raghuraman -- 4/07/04
Copy the following files:Counting Up - part 1 - interface
/usr/cad/course/nraghura-altera.tar.gz /usr/cad/course/nraghura-debug.tar.gz /usr/cad/course/nraghura-traffic.tar.gz
Part 1: Animation of an UpDown Counter
In this section, you will be shown how an animation interface works Download this file Unzip it to any folder say hw2a cd hw2a vsim & source altera.tcl Press Run Button Press 'dip1' to make the counter count down Press 'dip2' to disable the counterPart 2: Modification of the Animation Interface
In this section, you will be taught how to modify the interface using TCL/TK programming Read the instructions and follow the steps Make the necessary changes to the file 'altera.tcl' source the file in the ModelSim command line Press Run Button Press 'dip1' to make the counter count down Press 'dip2' to disable the counter Press 'Reset' button to reset the count to '0'. Capture a few images depicting that you have made the changes You can modify any of the lines and see what effect it has in the interface Comments have been provided in the file 'altera.tcl' to explain the significance of the various commandsExample Images
In this section, you will be taught how to animate a more complex vhdl block - A Traffic Light Controller Download this file
Unzip it to any folder say hw2b cd hw2b vsim & source runsim.do Press Run Button You should see the cars moving through the intersection according to the light states. Read the 'tcl' files and understand how the interface works(comments have been provided in the tcl files)
Part 3b: Debugging of VHDL logic using ModelSim - an example
In this section, you will be taught how to animate the debugging of vhdl logic Download this file
Unzip it to any folder say hw2c cd hw2c vsim & source runsim.do Select any of the 'light' signals in the wave window (Press 'shift' to select multiple signals) Press the button 'trafficd' in the wave window You should see the number of signals selected in the top-right corner of the traffic interface Press Run Button Let the simulation run for 200 ms Now click on any light signal wave in the wave window which you had selected before bringing up the interface You should see the light state change in the traffic interface To select more signals, select them and press 'Reload Selected' in the traffic interface This method can be very useful in debugging vhdl logic Read the 'tcl' files and understand how the debugging interface works(comments have been provided in the tcl files)
More Information on Animation
To learn more about animating Logic, Read this presentation (pdf) Be sure to read the notes provided below the slides. This presentation provides a detailed explanation on how to create Animation Interfaces using TCL/TK and ModelSim