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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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15 years ago

Signaltap Signal Groups

Is there a way to create anything but a huge unsorted list of signals in SignalTap? I would really like to be able to group signals that are a logical unit, i.e. Message Block inputs, Messaging Block outputs, Memory Bus, etc. It would also be handy to be able to change colors of individual signals and buses.

5 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor

    --- Quote Start ---

    Is there a way to create anything but a huge unsorted list of signals in SignalTap? I would really like to be able to group signals that are a logical unit, i.e. Message Block inputs, Messaging Block outputs, Memory Bus, etc. It would also be handy to be able to change colors of individual signals and buses.

    --- Quote End ---

    Hi,

    it is possible to group the signals. After you have choose the signal with e.g. with the node finder, they visible in the setup tab in signaltap. Select the signal you would like to

    group and right mouse click and choose "Group". After that you should see a group in the

    tab. Double click into the name field and you can change the name.

    As far as I know it is not possible to change the color.

    Kind regards

    GPK
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    Thank you for the response, pletz. It appears you cannot group signals that are already a group, i.e. it considers a bus a "group." So when I ungroup everything, I get a million signals like address[0], [1], [2], etc. Then when I group it back, it treats it as one huge bus. So, the group feature seems more like a bus feature rather than a "related signals" feature. What I hoped I could do is group related signals and subgroups of signals, like having an address bus as one element and some strobes as separate elements, without having to look at every member of address as a discrete.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor

    --- Quote Start ---

    Thank you for the response, pletz. It appears you cannot group signals that are already a group, i.e. it considers a bus a "group." So when I ungroup everything, I get a million signals like address[0], [1], [2], etc. Then when I group it back, it treats it as one huge bus. So, the group feature seems more like a bus feature rather than a "related signals" feature. What I hoped I could do is group related signals and subgroups of signals, like having an address bus as one element and some strobes as separate elements, without having to look at every member of address as a discrete.

    --- Quote End ---

    Hi,

    you right, it is not possible to generate subgroups. But where is the problem to have the addresses as a bus and the strobe signals as separate signals in the tarae window ?

    Kind regards

    GPK
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    Having the address and data as buses and the strobes separate is fine. What isn't fine by me, is having one huge mono-colored list of potentially unrelated signals such as the following:

    address[31:1]

    data[31:0]

    data_strobe

    addr_strobe

    multiplier_out[31:0]

    button_in

    i2c_line

    fifo_data[31:0]

    fifo_write_enable

    fifo_clk

    You see how it all bunches together? These are not all related. I want to be able to relate the first four items together, and the last three, etc.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor

    --- Quote Start ---

    Having the address and data as buses and the strobes separate is fine. What isn't fine by me, is having one huge mono-colored list of potentially unrelated signals such as the following:

    address[31:1]

    data[31:0]

    data_strobe

    addr_strobe

    multiplier_out[31:0]

    button_in

    i2c_line

    fifo_data[31:0]

    fifo_write_enable

    fifo_clk

    You see how it all bunches together? These are not all related. I want to be able to relate the first four items together, and the last three, etc.

    --- Quote End ---

    Hi,

    changing the color of traces are very limited in signaltap. The only thing I found is that you can choose different colors for bus and single signals. Maybe that could help.

    To change the color open your signaltap file and choose "tools" -> Options -> colors

    Kind regards

    GPK