PLI/VPI tracing

The foreign interface tracing feature is available for tracing PLI and VPI function calls. Foreign interface tracing creates two kinds of traces: a human-readable log of what functions were called, the value of the arguments, and the results returned; and a set of Clanguage files that can be used to replay what the foreign interface code did.

The purpose of tracing files

The purpose of the logfile is to aid you in debugging PLI or VPI code. The primary purpose of the replay facility is to send the replay file to MTI support for debugging co-simulation problems, or debugging PLI/VPI problems for which it is impractical to send the PLI/VPI code. We still need you to send the VHDL/Verilog part of the design to actually execute a replay, but many problems can be resolved with the trace only.

Invoking a trace

To invoke the trace, call vsim with the -trace_foreign option:

Syntax

vsim

-trace_foreign <action> [-tag <name>]

Arguments

<action>

Specifies one of the following actions:

Value	Action	Result
1	create log only	writes a local file called "mti_trace_<tag>"
2	create replay only	writes local files called "mti_data_<tag>.c", "mti_init_<tag>.c", "mti_replay_<tag>.c" and "mti_top_<tag>.c"
3	create both log and replay

-tag <name>

Used to give distinct file names for multiple traces. Optional.

Examples

vsim -trace_foreign 1 mydesign

Creates a logfile.

vsim -trace_foreign 3 mydesign

Creates both a logfile and a set of replay files.

vsim -trace_foreign 1 -tag 2 mydesign

Creates a logfile with a tag of "2".

The tracing operations will provide tracing during all user foreign code-calls, including PLI/VPI user tasks and functions (calltf, checktf, sizetf and misctf routines), and Verilog VCL callbacks.

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