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MOliv45's avatar
MOliv45
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8 days ago

Integrating Cocotb to Quartus using Native link

To integrate cocotb to Quartus Prime Native link and Questa, among a few environment variables needed, one has to set the following `vsim` option:  `-foreign "cocotb_init $(cocotb-config --lib-name-...
Simulation
ShengN_altera's avatar
ShengN_altera
Icon for Super Contributor rankSuper Contributor
3 days ago

The Simulation Option has difficulty at handling the \ and " because it's not a Tcl interpreter—it’s just a text field that Quartus (NativeLink) concatenates into a command line. Also nested quoting/escaping in a GUI field is fragile.

I would suggest using another .do script to set path and call the s2p_bram_run_msim_rtl_vhdl.do. For example like below:

parent.do:                                                                                                                                                                                      set FLI_LIB {"cocotb_init [exec cocotb-config --lib-name-path fli questa]\"}                                                                   do s2p_bram_run_msim_rtl_vhdl.do $FLI_LIB

s2p_bram_run_msim_rtl_vhdl.do:                                                                                                                                                eval "vsim -t 1ps $pd_libs -L work -L rtl_work -voptargs=\"+acc\" -foreign \$1 $ELAB_OPTIONS $DPI_LIBRARIES_ELAB s2p_bram_showahead"

In GUI, you set like this questa=-foreign $1 then it'll become like this questa=-foreign \$1 in .qsf

Then you run parent.do to call the auto-generated s2p_bram_run_msim_rtl_vhdl.do

      

  • MOliv45's avatar
    MOliv45
    Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor
    3 days ago

    Hi ShengN_altera​ ,

    Thanks for the suggestion, I find it a bit cumbersome to add an extra file in a folder that is automatically generated and cleaned by Quartus. But based on your insights, I found an alternative. Perhaps it is not yet the best solution, but it avoids creating an extra file. 

    1) First, set an environment variable as follows:

    export FLI_LIB='\"cocotb_init [exec cocotb-config --lib-name-path fli questa]\"'

    2) Then, set the simulation option as you suggested, `questa=-foreign $1 `

    3) The first simulation attempt will fail, but then one restarts with the following argument parameter:

    do user2mon_run_msim_rtl_vhdl.do {$::env(FLI_LIB)}

    4) Then it works

    It is not ideal, because it is hard to make it work with Continuous integration.

    Based on this feedback, can you imagine a way that it could already work without restarting the simulation? 

    • ShengN_altera's avatar
      ShengN_altera
      Icon for Super Contributor rankSuper Contributor
      3 days ago

      export as env variable is a way as well.

      If you run from nativelink, it'll definitely fail. If the do script s2p_bram_run_msim_rtl_vhdl.do had been generated, not need to run from the nativelink just straight run the do script will do unless there's changes to the path in the do script.