Modeslsim VHDL library distribution

[Rob]

Hi All,

Does anybody know the best way of distributing modelsim libraries,
keeping the VHDL source code private?

Obviously I can distribute a precompiled library, compiled with the -
nodebug switch, but AFAIK the library format can and does change
between Modelsim releases. This means I will need to distribute a
precompiled library for every release i want to support, on each
platform.

The other alternative i thought of was to write a program that has the
source code embedded (in encrypted format) and invokes vcom at the
command line. The problem with this is that the source will need to be
written to a file in the clear for vcom to operate on.

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers
Rob

 

[Kim Enkovaara]

Rob wrote:

Obviously I can distribute a precompiled library, compiled with the -
nodebug switch, but AFAIK the library format can and does change
between Modelsim releases. This means I will need to distribute a
precompiled library for every release i want to support, on each
platform.

Newer version of Modelsim can always update the older database version,
but of course not the other way. The commands are "vcom -refresh" and
"vlog -refresh". And the compiled format is platform independent if
the platforms have same amount of bits (32/64b difference).

The other alternative i thought of was to write a program that has the
source code embedded (in encrypted format) and invokes vcom at the
command line. The problem with this is that the source will need to be
written to a file in the clear for vcom to operate on.

With verilog code there would be more options for native code
encryption in recent Modelsim versions.

--Kim