How to make Altera-Modelsim free download version to work?

[Weng Tianxiang]

On Tuesday, December 11, 2018 at 2:13:10 PM UTC-8, Mike Perkins wrote:

On 09/12/2018 01:46, Weng Tianxiang wrote:
On Saturday, December 8, 2018 at 8:22:38 AM UTC-8, KJ wrote:
On Friday, December 7, 2018 at 1:27:55 PM UTC-5, Weng Tianxiang wrote:
On Thursday, December 6, 2018 at 5:33:03 PM UTC-8, KJ wrote:
I prefer Modelsim but I did try GHDL. It works under Windows as well, which is what I used.

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

I registered an account in GitHub, and I found I missed and could not find GHDL in any version.

Could you please give me the website to download GitHub window version?

Thank you.

Weng

https://github.com/ghdl/ghdl/releases

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

Thank you very much !!!

I am not an experienced application user. Here I copied all related download file names from the website you suggested above:

snip

Why not use the Windows executables?
http://ghdl.free.fr/site/pmwiki.php?n=Main.Download



--
Mike Perkins
Video Solutions Ltd
www.videosolutions.ltd.uk

Hi Mike,

I am so happy to have your post:
The reason "Why not use the Windows executables" is that I don't know its existence!!!

I will immediately download it and try it. I will fully focus on using GHDL and debugging all my VHDL code, and will soon share any experiences with GHDL I will have.

It is really a happy ending for my post.

Thank you everybody for responding to my post.

Weng

 

[Weng Tianxiang]

On Tuesday, December 11, 2018 at 2:13:10 PM UTC-8, Mike Perkins wrote:

On 09/12/2018 01:46, Weng Tianxiang wrote:
On Saturday, December 8, 2018 at 8:22:38 AM UTC-8, KJ wrote:
On Friday, December 7, 2018 at 1:27:55 PM UTC-5, Weng Tianxiang wrote:
On Thursday, December 6, 2018 at 5:33:03 PM UTC-8, KJ wrote:
I prefer Modelsim but I did try GHDL. It works under Windows as well, which is what I used.

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

I registered an account in GitHub, and I found I missed and could not find GHDL in any version.

Could you please give me the website to download GitHub window version?

Thank you.

Weng

https://github.com/ghdl/ghdl/releases

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

Thank you very much !!!

I am not an experienced application user. Here I copied all related download file names from the website you suggested above:

snip

Why not use the Windows executables?
http://ghdl.free.fr/site/pmwiki.php?n=Main.Download



--
Mike Perkins
Video Solutions Ltd
www.videosolutions.ltd.uk

Hi,

Help is needed.

I download from https://github.com/ghdl/ghdl/releases
Windows X86 (MinGW64), LLVM, 12.7MB, ghdl-0.35-mingw64-llvm.zip

I extract all files, that generates 2 bin file as application: ghdl1-llvm and ghdl. I didn't see install.exe. I clicked either of them, no application was running.

Thank you.

Weng

 

[Mike Perkins]

On 13/12/2018 23:29, Weng Tianxiang wrote:

On Tuesday, December 11, 2018 at 2:13:10 PM UTC-8, Mike Perkins wrote:
On 09/12/2018 01:46, Weng Tianxiang wrote:
On Saturday, December 8, 2018 at 8:22:38 AM UTC-8, KJ wrote:
On Friday, December 7, 2018 at 1:27:55 PM UTC-5, Weng Tianxiang wrote:
On Thursday, December 6, 2018 at 5:33:03 PM UTC-8, KJ wrote:
I prefer Modelsim but I did try GHDL. It works under Windows as well, which is what I used.

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

I registered an account in GitHub, and I found I missed and could not find GHDL in any version.

Could you please give me the website to download GitHub window version?

Thank you.

Weng

https://github.com/ghdl/ghdl/releases

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

Thank you very much !!!

I am not an experienced application user. Here I copied all related download file names from the website you suggested above:

snip

Why not use the Windows executables?
http://ghdl.free.fr/site/pmwiki.php?n=Main.Download



--
Mike Perkins
Video Solutions Ltd
www.videosolutions.ltd.uk

Hi,

Help is needed.

I download from https://github.com/ghdl/ghdl/releases
Windows X86 (MinGW64), LLVM, 12.7MB, ghdl-0.35-mingw64-llvm.zip

I extract all files, that generates 2 bin file as application: ghdl1-llvm and ghdl. I didn't see install.exe. I clicked either of them, no application was running.

Thank you.

Did you run the executable linked from the URL in my earlier post?
http://ghdl.free.fr/ghdl-installer-0.29.1.exe

From:
Binary distributions
GHDL for Windows

Since May 2006, there is a pre-built version of windows. This is a
command-line only version, almost like the Linux version. You can
download the installer, and execute it to install GHDL.


--
Mike Perkins
Video Solutions Ltd
www.videosolutions.ltd.uk

 

[Weng Tianxiang]

On Thursday, December 13, 2018 at 4:14:34 PM UTC-8, Mike Perkins wrote:

On 13/12/2018 23:29, Weng Tianxiang wrote:
On Tuesday, December 11, 2018 at 2:13:10 PM UTC-8, Mike Perkins wrote:
On 09/12/2018 01:46, Weng Tianxiang wrote:
On Saturday, December 8, 2018 at 8:22:38 AM UTC-8, KJ wrote:
On Friday, December 7, 2018 at 1:27:55 PM UTC-5, Weng Tianxiang wrote:
On Thursday, December 6, 2018 at 5:33:03 PM UTC-8, KJ wrote:
I prefer Modelsim but I did try GHDL. It works under Windows as well, which is what I used.

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

I registered an account in GitHub, and I found I missed and could not find GHDL in any version.

Could you please give me the website to download GitHub window version?

Thank you.

Weng

https://github.com/ghdl/ghdl/releases

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

Thank you very much !!!

I am not an experienced application user. Here I copied all related download file names from the website you suggested above:

snip

Why not use the Windows executables?
http://ghdl.free.fr/site/pmwiki.php?n=Main.Download



--
Mike Perkins
Video Solutions Ltd
www.videosolutions.ltd.uk

Hi,

Help is needed.

I download from https://github.com/ghdl/ghdl/releases
Windows X86 (MinGW64), LLVM, 12.7MB, ghdl-0.35-mingw64-llvm.zip

I extract all files, that generates 2 bin file as application: ghdl1-llvm and ghdl. I didn't see install.exe. I clicked either of them, no application was running.

Thank you.

Did you run the executable linked from the URL in my earlier post?
http://ghdl.free.fr/ghdl-installer-0.29.1.exe

From:
Binary distributions
GHDL for Windows

Since May 2006, there is a pre-built version of windows. This is a
command-line only version, almost like the Linux version. You can
download the installer, and execute it to install GHDL.


--
Mike Perkins
Video Solutions Ltd
www.videosolutions.ltd.uk

Hi Mike,

I downloaded ghdl-installer-0.29.1, and run it again. A window was popped up, saying: You already have GHDL 0.29.1 installed. Deinstall?

What should I do?

Weng

 

[KJ]

On Thursday, December 13, 2018 at 10:13:09 PM UTC-5, Weng Tianxiang wrote:

On Thursday, December 13, 2018 at 4:14:34 PM UTC-8, Mike Perkins wrote:
On 13/12/2018 23:29, Weng Tianxiang wrote:
On Tuesday, December 11, 2018 at 2:13:10 PM UTC-8, Mike Perkins wrote:
On 09/12/2018 01:46, Weng Tianxiang wrote:
On Saturday, December 8, 2018 at 8:22:38 AM UTC-8, KJ wrote:
On Friday, December 7, 2018 at 1:27:55 PM UTC-5, Weng Tianxiang wrote:
On Thursday, December 6, 2018 at 5:33:03 PM UTC-8, KJ wrote:
I prefer Modelsim but I did try GHDL. It works under Windows as well, which is what I used.

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

I registered an account in GitHub, and I found I missed and could not find GHDL in any version.

Could you please give me the website to download GitHub window version?

Thank you.

Weng

https://github.com/ghdl/ghdl/releases

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

Thank you very much !!!

I am not an experienced application user. Here I copied all related download file names from the website you suggested above:

snip

Why not use the Windows executables?
http://ghdl.free.fr/site/pmwiki.php?n=Main.Download



--
Mike Perkins
Video Solutions Ltd
www.videosolutions.ltd.uk

Hi,

Help is needed.

I download from https://github.com/ghdl/ghdl/releases
Windows X86 (MinGW64), LLVM, 12.7MB, ghdl-0.35-mingw64-llvm.zip

I extract all files, that generates 2 bin file as application: ghdl1-llvm and ghdl. I didn't see install.exe. I clicked either of them, no application was running.

Thank you.

Did you run the executable linked from the URL in my earlier post?
http://ghdl.free.fr/ghdl-installer-0.29.1.exe

From:
Binary distributions
GHDL for Windows

Since May 2006, there is a pre-built version of windows. This is a
command-line only version, almost like the Linux version. You can
download the installer, and execute it to install GHDL.


--
Mike Perkins
Video Solutions Ltd
www.videosolutions.ltd.uk

Hi Mike,

I downloaded ghdl-installer-0.29.1, and run it again. A window was popped up, saying: You already have GHDL 0.29.1 installed. Deinstall?

What should I do?

Weng

It depends on your goals which I can only speculate about. But here are a few directions you can go based on different assumptions...

On the assumption that you installed GHDL for the purposes of running the GHDL program to process some VHDL design, I would normally suggest that you run the GHDL program. But since you seem to require step by step instructions,
- Read the documentation for how to run the GHDL program
- Explore your hard disk to see where the GHDL program has been stored
- Find the location on your hard disk where you have stored your VHDL file(s)
- Using your knowledge gained from the previous steps, run the GHDL program on your VHDL files

On the assumption that you installed GHDL for the purposes of having someone else do something, then hire someone to do the work.

On the assumption that you installed GHDL for no purpose at all I would suggest you uninstall the program to free up the disk space.

On the assumption that you installed GHDL for the purposes of filling up your disk, I would suggest you format your hard drive.

Good luck!

Kevin

 

[Weng Tianxiang]

On Friday, December 14, 2018 at 4:55:34 AM UTC-8, KJ wrote:

On Thursday, December 13, 2018 at 10:13:09 PM UTC-5, Weng Tianxiang wrote:
On Thursday, December 13, 2018 at 4:14:34 PM UTC-8, Mike Perkins wrote:
On 13/12/2018 23:29, Weng Tianxiang wrote:
On Tuesday, December 11, 2018 at 2:13:10 PM UTC-8, Mike Perkins wrote:
On 09/12/2018 01:46, Weng Tianxiang wrote:
On Saturday, December 8, 2018 at 8:22:38 AM UTC-8, KJ wrote:
On Friday, December 7, 2018 at 1:27:55 PM UTC-5, Weng Tianxiang wrote:
On Thursday, December 6, 2018 at 5:33:03 PM UTC-8, KJ wrote:
I prefer Modelsim but I did try GHDL. It works under Windows as well, which is what I used.

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

I registered an account in GitHub, and I found I missed and could not find GHDL in any version.

Could you please give me the website to download GitHub window version?

Thank you.

Weng

https://github.com/ghdl/ghdl/releases

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

Thank you very much !!!

I am not an experienced application user. Here I copied all related download file names from the website you suggested above:

snip

Why not use the Windows executables?
http://ghdl.free.fr/site/pmwiki.php?n=Main.Download



--
Mike Perkins
Video Solutions Ltd
www.videosolutions.ltd.uk

Hi,

Help is needed.

I download from https://github.com/ghdl/ghdl/releases
Windows X86 (MinGW64), LLVM, 12.7MB, ghdl-0.35-mingw64-llvm.zip

I extract all files, that generates 2 bin file as application: ghdl1-llvm and ghdl. I didn't see install.exe. I clicked either of them, no application was running.

Thank you.

Did you run the executable linked from the URL in my earlier post?
http://ghdl.free.fr/ghdl-installer-0.29.1.exe

From:
Binary distributions
GHDL for Windows

Since May 2006, there is a pre-built version of windows. This is a
command-line only version, almost like the Linux version. You can
download the installer, and execute it to install GHDL.


--
Mike Perkins
Video Solutions Ltd
www.videosolutions.ltd.uk

Hi Mike,

I downloaded ghdl-installer-0.29.1, and run it again. A window was popped up, saying: You already have GHDL 0.29.1 installed. Deinstall?

What should I do?

Weng

It depends on your goals which I can only speculate about. But here are a few directions you can go based on different assumptions...

On the assumption that you installed GHDL for the purposes of running the GHDL program to process some VHDL design, I would normally suggest that you run the GHDL program. But since you seem to require step by step instructions,
- Read the documentation for how to run the GHDL program
- Explore your hard disk to see where the GHDL program has been stored
- Find the location on your hard disk where you have stored your VHDL file(s)
- Using your knowledge gained from the previous steps, run the GHDL program on your VHDL files

On the assumption that you installed GHDL for the purposes of having someone else do something, then hire someone to do the work.

On the assumption that you installed GHDL for no purpose at all I would suggest you uninstall the program to free up the disk space.

On the assumption that you installed GHDL for the purposes of filling up your disk, I would suggest you format your hard drive.

Good luck!

Kevin

Kevin,

I even don't see any text file showing up after my download, not mention "Read the documentation for how to run the GHDL program"

No GHDL application start to work, how do I start debugging with it.

Mike,

Please help.

I download from https://github.com/ghdl/ghdl/releases
Windows X86 (MinGW64), LLVM, 12.7MB, ghdl-0.35-mingw64-llvm.zip

I extract all files, that generates 2 bin file as application: ghdl1-llvm and ghdl. I didn't see install.exe. I clicked either of them, no application was running.

I downloaded ghdl-installer-0.29.1, and run it again. A window was popped up, saying: You already have GHDL 0.29.1 installed. Deinstall?

What should I do?

Thank you.

Weng

 

[KJ]

On Friday, December 14, 2018 at 10:21:00 AM UTC-5, Weng Tianxiang wrote:

Kevin,

I even don't see any text file showing up after my download, not mention "Read the documentation for how to run the GHDL program"

No GHDL application start to work, how do I start debugging with it.

Does Google not work for you? Maybe try http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ghdl+tutorial and read from some of the more interesting links that you can find there.

Kevin

 

[Weng Tianxiang]

On Friday, December 14, 2018 at 11:40:09 AM UTC-8, KJ wrote:

On Friday, December 14, 2018 at 10:21:00 AM UTC-5, Weng Tianxiang wrote:
Kevin,

I even don't see any text file showing up after my download, not mention "Read the documentation for how to run the GHDL program"

No GHDL application start to work, how do I start debugging with it.


Does Google not work for you? Maybe try http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ghdl+tutorial and read from some of the more interesting links that you can find there.

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

This method really helps me. Sometimes I really need people's help, this time you really give me help. There are huge information there to teach me how to start GHDL.

Of cause I will make contribution to further improve its quality and share my experiences with other people here.

Than you.

Weng

 

[Weng Tianxiang]

On Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 8:46:02 PM UTC-8, Weng Tianxiang wrote:

Hi,

I downloaded 11.0_modelsim_ase_windows.exe from https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/programmable/downloads/software/modelsim/121.html

Release Notes For ModelSim Altera 10.1b

Apr 26 2012
Copyright 1991-2012 Mentor Graphics Corporation
All rights reserved.

After installing the software, I cannot run it: Unable to checkout a licence. Modelsim-Altera uses the following environment variables to check the licence (listed in the order of preference)

1. MGLS_LICENCE_FILE
2. LM_LICENCE_FILE.

I don't know:
1. How to set the environment variables.

2. If the licence file is valid for me to free use?

Thank you.

Weng

Hi,

Here is the latest version of GHDL document published minutes ago:

https://media.readthedocs.org/pdf/ghdl/latest/ghdl.pdf

GHDL Documentation

Release 0.36-dev

Tristan Gingold

Dec 15, 2018

Weng

 

[Weng Tianxiang]

On Saturday, December 15, 2018 at 7:43:52 AM UTC-8, Weng Tianxiang wrote:

On Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 8:46:02 PM UTC-8, Weng Tianxiang wrote:
Hi,

I downloaded 11.0_modelsim_ase_windows.exe from https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/programmable/downloads/software/modelsim/121.html

Release Notes For ModelSim Altera 10.1b

Apr 26 2012
Copyright 1991-2012 Mentor Graphics Corporation
All rights reserved.

After installing the software, I cannot run it: Unable to checkout a licence. Modelsim-Altera uses the following environment variables to check the licence (listed in the order of preference)

1. MGLS_LICENCE_FILE
2. LM_LICENCE_FILE.

I don't know:
1. How to set the environment variables.

2. If the licence file is valid for me to free use?

Thank you.

Weng

Hi,

Here is the latest version of GHDL document published minutes ago:

https://media.readthedocs.org/pdf/ghdl/latest/ghdl.pdf

GHDL Documentation

Release 0.36-dev

Tristan Gingold

Dec 15, 2018

Weng

It is the latest INFORMATION of GHDL:

The current version of GHDL does not contain any graphical viewer: you cannot see signal waves.

You can still check the behavior of your design with a test bench.

Moreover, the current version can produce a GHW, VCD or FST files which can be viewed with a waveform viewer, such as GtkWave.

GHDL aims at implementing VHDL as defined by IEEE 1076. It supports the 1987, 1993 and 2002 revisions and, partially, the latest, 2008. PSL is also partially supported.

Several third party projects are supported: VUnit, OSVVM, cocotb (through the VPI interface), . . .

Now I know why GHDL is not populous, the basic reason is it has no waveform viewer!

But for a free version, it still has its values:
1. It can be used to correct all VHDL grammar errors, playing the same rule as Modelsim does.

2. It can be used to test a pre-issued product playing the same rule as Modelsim does, but it should be faster than Modelsim PE or SE.

3. At least it provides files to communicate with third party software to view the waveform.

I will be comfortable with this method: As an experienced VHDL designer, I spent most of time running Modelsim until an error showed up. The speed is very important factor to get all bugs discovered.

Weng

 

[HT-Lab]

On 15/12/2018 16:07, Weng Tianxiang wrote:
...

It is the latest INFORMATION of GHDL:

The current version of GHDL does not contain any graphical viewer: you cannot see signal waves.

You can still check the behavior of your design with a test bench.

Moreover, the current version can produce a GHW, VCD or FST files which can be viewed with a waveform viewer, such as GtkWave.

GHDL aims at implementing VHDL as defined by IEEE 1076. It supports the 1987, 1993 and 2002 revisions and, partially, the latest, 2008. PSL is also partially supported.

This is really good as none of the restricted free commercial versions
supports PSL.

Several third party projects are supported: VUnit, OSVVM, cocotb (through the VPI interface), . . .

Now I know why GHDL is not populous, the basic reason is it has no waveform viewer!

Build-in waveform viewer, but I agree with you this is a major obstacle.
The waveform display is the number one debugging window. It doesn't
matter if you design an AND gate or the latest billion gate machine
learning chip the waveform window is always king. For this reason EDA
vendors have added all sorts of enhancements such as virtual
signals/functions, transaction display, analogue display, multiple
panes, group/combine functions, scripting etc.
GHW+Sigasi improves the situation but it is still not as smooth or
capable as the free restricted Modelsim or ActiveHDL versions.

But for a free version, it still has its values:

Definitely, I hope GHDL will be the first simulator to fully support the
2018 standard.

1. It can be used to correct all VHDL grammar errors, playing the same rule as Modelsim does.

2. It can be used to test a pre-issued product playing the same rule as Modelsim does, but it should be faster than Modelsim PE or SE.

Hum? why should it be faster? I give all kudos to Tristan (et al.) as he
wrote an amazing piece of software but it is definitely not faster than
Modelsim. I ran two of my test cases again to see if anything has
changed and GHDL was still 6x slower than Modelsim 10.7c. This is no
surprise as Mentor has an army of engineers trying to squeeze the last
fs from the simulation time.
Modelsim SE has been obsolete for at least 8 years (replaced by Questa).

Hans
www.ht-lab.com

3. At least it provides files to communicate with third party software to view the waveform.

I will be comfortable with this method: As an experienced VHDL designer, I spent most of time running Modelsim until an error showed up. The speed is very important factor to get all bugs discovered.

Weng

 

[Weng Tianxiang]

2. It can be used to test a pre-issued product playing the same rule as Modelsim does, but it should be faster than Modelsim PE or SE.
Hum? why should it be faster? I give all kudos to Tristan (et al.) as he
wrote an amazing piece of software but it is definitely not faster than
Modelsim. I ran two of my test cases again to see if anything has
changed and GHDL was still 6x slower than Modelsim 10.7c. This is no
surprise as Mentor has an army of engineers trying to squeeze the last
fs from the simulation time.
Modelsim SE has been obsolete for at least 8 years (replaced by Questa).

Hans
www.ht-lab.com

Hi Hans,

I appreciate your sharing experiences with us.

I desplayed Youtube "Getting Started With VHDL on Windows (GHDL & GTKWave)"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2GyAIYwZbw&t=946s

I asked one Modelsim seller who offers to sell Modelsim DE.

Do you have any experiences with different versions of Modelsim and their prices?

It seems to me that buying a Modelsim perpetual use of PE, or other advanced version may be my best option.

Thank you.

Weng

 

[HT-Lab]

On 23/12/2018 13:47, Weng Tianxiang wrote:

2. It can be used to test a pre-issued product playing the same rule as Modelsim does, but it should be faster than Modelsim PE or SE.
Hum? why should it be faster? I give all kudos to Tristan (et al.) as he
wrote an amazing piece of software but it is definitely not faster than
Modelsim. I ran two of my test cases again to see if anything has
changed and GHDL was still 6x slower than Modelsim 10.7c. This is no
surprise as Mentor has an army of engineers trying to squeeze the last
fs from the simulation time.
Modelsim SE has been obsolete for at least 8 years (replaced by Questa).

Hans
www.ht-lab.com

Hi Hans,

I appreciate your sharing experiences with us.

I desplayed Youtube "Getting Started With VHDL on Windows (GHDL & GTKWave)"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2GyAIYwZbw&t=946s

Nice tutorial although I would forget about the VCD format as it is not
well suited for VHDL. There is e.g. no support for enumerated types (I
suspect GTKwave will allow you to add them afterwards with some virtual
functions). If you want to use GHDL use GHW+GTKWave together with Sigasi:

https://youtu.be/thenLKSynO8

I asked one Modelsim seller who offers to sell Modelsim DE.

Do you have any experiences with different versions of Modelsim and their prices?

Have a look at this comparison chart:

https://www.innofour.com/1015/eda/fpga-design/simulation-verification/modelsim-edition-comparison

The main difference is that Modelsim DE will give you full support for
PSL/SVA which is great for functional verification. You also get access
to the FLI (VHDL C/C++ I/F) and full 64bits Windows support to name a
few. If you don't need any of these just ask for Modelsim PE.

It seems to me that buying a Modelsim perpetual use of PE, or other advanced version may be my best option.

If you need it for commercial work then yes Modelsim is a great product.
For personal use it is too expensive. Intel has a $1995 version (for
Intel FPGA's only) but I think it is for 1 year only (non perpetual) and
has lower performance than Modelsim.

Good luck,
Hans
www.ht-lab.com

Thank you.

Weng

 

On Sunday, December 23, 2018 at 6:52:58 AM UTC-5, HT-Lab wrote:

On 15/12/2018 16:07, Weng Tianxiang wrote:
..

It is the latest INFORMATION of GHDL:

The current version of GHDL does not contain any graphical viewer: you cannot see signal waves.

You can still check the behavior of your design with a test bench.

Moreover, the current version can produce a GHW, VCD or FST files which can be viewed with a waveform viewer, such as GtkWave.

GHDL aims at implementing VHDL as defined by IEEE 1076. It supports the 1987, 1993 and 2002 revisions and, partially, the latest, 2008. PSL is also partially supported.

This is really good as none of the restricted free commercial versions
supports PSL.

Several third party projects are supported: VUnit, OSVVM, cocotb (through the VPI interface), . . .

Now I know why GHDL is not populous, the basic reason is it has no waveform viewer!
Build-in waveform viewer, but I agree with you this is a major obstacle.
The waveform display is the number one debugging window. It doesn't
matter if you design an AND gate or the latest billion gate machine
learning chip the waveform window is always king. For this reason EDA
vendors have added all sorts of enhancements such as virtual
signals/functions, transaction display, analogue display, multiple
panes, group/combine functions, scripting etc.
GHW+Sigasi improves the situation but it is still not as smooth or
capable as the free restricted Modelsim or ActiveHDL versions.

But for a free version, it still has its values:
Definitely, I hope GHDL will be the first simulator to fully support the
2018 standard.

1. It can be used to correct all VHDL grammar errors, playing the same rule as Modelsim does.

2. It can be used to test a pre-issued product playing the same rule as Modelsim does, but it should be faster than Modelsim PE or SE.
Hum? why should it be faster? I give all kudos to Tristan (et al.) as he
wrote an amazing piece of software but it is definitely not faster than
Modelsim. I ran two of my test cases again to see if anything has
changed and GHDL was still 6x slower than Modelsim 10.7c. This is no
surprise as Mentor has an army of engineers trying to squeeze the last
fs from the simulation time.

It could be faster than Modelsim because Modelsim is intentionally crippled unless you pay for the fastest version. So if GHDL picks up the same sorts of speed enhancements as commercial packages it won't require that the higher speeds be enabled.


> Modelsim SE has been obsolete for at least 8 years (replaced by Questa).

Personally I wouldn't know. I use the ActiveHDL that comes free with Lattice tools. I gave up paying for this sort of software. I didn't feel I was getting anything for my money. Support is not good. It seems most support comes from the community, in both commercial and open source packages. So why pay for commercial stuff?

Rick C.

- Get 6 months of free supercharging
- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

 

[HT-Lab]

On 23/12/2018 15:18, gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com wrote:

On Sunday, December 23, 2018 at 6:52:58 AM UTC-5, HT-Lab wrote:
...
Hum? why should it be faster? I give all kudos to Tristan (et al.) as he
wrote an amazing piece of software but it is definitely not faster than
Modelsim. I ran two of my test cases again to see if anything has
changed and GHDL was still 6x slower than Modelsim 10.7c. This is no
surprise as Mentor has an army of engineers trying to squeeze the last
fs from the simulation time.

It could be faster than Modelsim because Modelsim is intentionally crippled unless you pay for the fastest version.

True, but Modelsim's OEM versions are about 40% of the speed of Modelsim
which means they are still faster than GHDL (base on my limited
testing). Of course this is true until you reach the instance limit in
which case Modelsim OEM grinds to a halt. It would be great if GHDL was
faster than Modelsim as for some of my designs I don't need to log any
signals, just sockets I/O.


>So if GHDL picks up the same sorts of speed enhancements as commercial packages it won't require that the higher speeds be enabled.

How can GHDL pick up the same sorts of speed enhancements? I am sure all
EDA vendors keep their optimisers a close secret.

Modelsim SE has been obsolete for at least 8 years (replaced by Questa).

Personally I wouldn't know.

I do.

>I use the ActiveHDL that comes free with Lattice tools.

Right and that version is not crippled?

>I gave up paying for this sort of software. I didn't feel I was getting anything for my money. Support is not good.

for you...., doesn't mean it is bad for everybody.

> It seems most support comes from the community, in both commercial and open source packages. So why pay for commercial stuff?

Because if you work on a commercial product and you find an issue you
want to pick up the phone and get help immediately. They are required to
help you as you are paying expensive maintenance, if they don't help you
you switch products. Also for a complex product you can not rely on the
free versions as they are too limited in their capabilities. I guess you
are happy with the free ActiveHDL version as your designs are not that
large.

Regards,
Hans.
www.ht-lab.com

Rick C.

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On Sunday, December 23, 2018 at 11:09:00 AM UTC-5, HT-Lab wrote:

On 23/12/2018 15:18, gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com wrote:
On Sunday, December 23, 2018 at 6:52:58 AM UTC-5, HT-Lab wrote:
..
Hum? why should it be faster? I give all kudos to Tristan (et al.) as he
wrote an amazing piece of software but it is definitely not faster than
Modelsim. I ran two of my test cases again to see if anything has
changed and GHDL was still 6x slower than Modelsim 10.7c. This is no
surprise as Mentor has an army of engineers trying to squeeze the last
fs from the simulation time.

It could be faster than Modelsim because Modelsim is intentionally crippled unless you pay for the fastest version.

True, but Modelsim's OEM versions are about 40% of the speed of Modelsim
which means they are still faster than GHDL (base on my limited
testing). Of course this is true until you reach the instance limit in
which case Modelsim OEM grinds to a halt. It would be great if GHDL was
faster than Modelsim as for some of my designs I don't need to log any
signals, just sockets I/O.


So if GHDL picks up the same sorts of speed enhancements as commercial packages it won't require that the higher speeds be enabled.

How can GHDL pick up the same sorts of speed enhancements? I am sure all
EDA vendors keep their optimisers a close secret.



Modelsim SE has been obsolete for at least 8 years (replaced by Questa).

Personally I wouldn't know.

I do.

I use the ActiveHDL that comes free with Lattice tools.

Right and that version is not crippled?

I gave up paying for this sort of software. I didn't feel I was getting anything for my money. Support is not good.

for you...., doesn't mean it is bad for everybody.

It seems most support comes from the community, in both commercial and open source packages. So why pay for commercial stuff?

Because if you work on a commercial product and you find an issue you
want to pick up the phone and get help immediately. They are required to
help you as you are paying expensive maintenance, if they don't help you
you switch products. Also for a complex product you can not rely on the
free versions as they are too limited in their capabilities. I guess you
are happy with the free ActiveHDL version as your designs are not that
large.

My use of the free tools is post having paid for tools and gotten a lot less than I would have liked.

What gets support is buying lots of chips, not support dollars. Support dollars are chump change in the budget of the chip makers.


Rick C.

-- Get 6 months of free supercharging
-- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209