Intel® Simics® Simulator for Intel® FPGAs: User Guide

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ID 784383
Date 4/01/2024
Public
Document Table of Contents
Document Table of Contents x
1. About This Document 2. Intel® Simics® Simulator and Virtual Platforms 3. Intel® Simics® Simulator for Intel® FPGAs Device Portfolio 4. Installing the Intel® Simics® Simulator for Intel® FPGAs 5. Getting Started with Intel® Simics® Simulator 6. Debugging Target Software 7. Networking with the Simulated Target System 8. Intel® Simics® Scripting 9. Software Debug Examples with Intel® Simics® Simulator 10. Document Revision History for Intel® Simics® Simulator for Intel FPGAs User Guide A. Intel® Simics® Simulator Command Reference
1. About This Document x
1.1. Documentation Conventions for Examples 1.2. Terminology 1.3. List of Acronyms
2. Intel® Simics® Simulator and Virtual Platforms x
2.1. Device Model and Virtual Platforms 2.2. Intel® Simics® Simulator 2.3. Intel® Simics® Simulator Architecture
2.2. Intel® Simics® Simulator x
2.2.1. Intel® Simics® Simulator for Intel FPGAs Capabilities
4. Installing the Intel® Simics® Simulator for Intel® FPGAs x
4.1. Installing the Intel® Simics® Simulator for Intel® FPGAs on Linux* Systems 4.2. Installing the Intel® Simics® Simulator for Intel® FPGAs on Microsoft Windows* Systems 4.3. Installing Ashling* RiscFree* IDE for Intel® FPGAs 4.4. Intel® Simics® Simulator for Intel® FPGAs Support
5. Getting Started with Intel® Simics® Simulator x
5.1. Simulation Set Up 5.2. Starting the Simulation 5.3. Intel® Simics® Simulator Command-Line Interface (CLI) 5.4. Hardware Inspection 5.5. Intel® Simics® Simulator Timing
5.1. Simulation Set Up x
5.1.1. Initializing an Intel® Simics® Project and Deploying a Virtual Platform 5.1.2. Understanding Target Scripts
5.2. Starting the Simulation x
5.2.1. Starting a Simulation from a Command Prompt 5.2.2. Starting a Simulation with Ashling* RiscFree* IDE
5.3. Intel® Simics® Simulator Command-Line Interface (CLI) x
5.3.1. Version of the Intel® Simics® Simulator for Intel FPGAs Software 5.3.2. Simulation Run Control from CLI 5.3.3. Intel® Simics® Simulator Command Scope 5.3.4. Intel® Simics® Simulator CLI Variables and Operations 5.3.5. Intel® Simics® Simulator CLI Command Completion and Command History 5.3.6. Intel® Simics® Command-Line Interface Help 5.3.7. Capture of CLI Session to a File 5.3.8. Intel® Simics® Simulator File Location and Intel® Simics® Search Path
5.4. Hardware Inspection x
5.4.1. Listing Objects in the Target System 5.4.2. Processor (CPU) Inspection 5.4.3. Device Inspection 5.4.4. Memory Mapping and Memory Inspection 5.4.5. Logging
5.4.2. Processor (CPU) Inspection x
5.4.2.1. Listing Processors 5.4.2.2. Inspect Processor Registers
5.4.3. Device Inspection x
5.4.3.1. Retrieve List of Devices 5.4.3.2. Inspecting Device Registers
5.4.4. Memory Mapping and Memory Inspection x
5.4.4.1. Memory Mapping Inspection 5.4.4.2. Memory Inspection
5.4.5. Logging x
5.4.5.1. Breakpoints on CLI Log Messages
5.5. Intel® Simics® Simulator Timing x
5.5.1. CPU Frequency 5.5.2. CPU Cycles and Steps 5.5.3. Events 5.5.4. Enable Real Time
6. Debugging Target Software x
6.1. Intel® Simics® Debugger and Debug Context 6.2. Capturing Serial Console Output 6.3. Breakpoints 6.4. Debugging Target Software with Symbol Files 6.5. Debugging Target Software with Ashling* RiscFree* Debugger 6.6. Capturing CPU Instruction Execution Trace
6.3. Breakpoints x
6.3.1. Memory Breakpoints 6.3.2. Temporal Breakpoints 6.3.3. CPU Control Register Breakpoints 6.3.4. Hardware Access Breakpoints 6.3.5. CPU Register Breakpoints 6.3.6. Tracing Breakpoints 6.3.7. Text Console Activity Breakpoints
6.4. Debugging Target Software with Symbol Files x
6.4.1. Loading Symbol Files in a Simulation
6.5. Debugging Target Software with Ashling* RiscFree* Debugger x
6.5.1. Remote Debugging with RiscFree* IDE
6.5.1. Remote Debugging with RiscFree* IDE x
6.5.1.1. Remote Debugging With Intel® Simics® Simulation and RiscFree* IDE on the Same System 6.5.1.2. Remote Debugging With Intel® Simics® Simulation and RiscFree* IDE on Different Systems 6.5.1.3. Remote Access to the Target System Serial Console
7. Networking with the Simulated Target System x
7.1. Network Simulation and Service Node 7.2. Connectivity Between Host PC and Target System
7.2. Connectivity Between Host PC and Target System x
7.2.1. Port Forwarding 7.2.2. Transferring Files Between Host PC and Target System 7.2.3. Accessing Target System from Host PC Through HTTP 7.2.4. Networking Commands Reference Table
7.2.1. Port Forwarding x
7.2.1.1. Incoming Port Forwarding 7.2.1.2. Outgoing Port Forwarding
7.2.1.1. Incoming Port Forwarding x
7.2.1.1.1. Example of an SSH Connection with Incoming Port Forwarding
7.2.1.2. Outgoing Port Forwarding x
7.2.1.2.1. Example of SSH Connection With Outgoing Port Forwarding 7.2.1.2.2. Example of SSH Connection via NAPT
7.2.2. Transferring Files Between Host PC and Target System x
7.2.2.1. Transferring Files with SCP service 7.2.2.2. Transferring Files with TFTP service
7.2.2.1. Transferring Files with SCP service x
7.2.2.1.1. Transferring Files With SCP Service via Forwarding Ports 7.2.2.1.2. Transferring Files with SCP from Target System to Host PC via NAPT
7.2.2.2. Transferring Files with TFTP service x
7.2.2.2.1. TFTP Using Forwarding Port 7.2.2.2.2. TFTP via NAPT 7.2.2.2.3. TFTP Using TFTP Server in Intel® Simics® Service Node
8. Intel® Simics® Scripting x
8.1. Scripts in CLI
8.1. Scripts in CLI x
8.1.1. Variables 8.1.2. Command Return Values 8.1.3. Control Flow Commands 8.1.4. Local Variables 8.1.5. Integer Conversion 8.1.6. Accessing Configuration Parameters 8.1.7. Error Handling in Scripts 8.1.8. Script Branches
8.1.8. Script Branches x
8.1.8.1. Script Branches Commands 8.1.8.2. Variables in Script Branches 8.1.8.3. Branch Synchronization 8.1.8.4. Canceling Script Branches 8.1.8.5. Script Branches Restrictions
9. Software Debug Examples with Intel® Simics® Simulator x
9.1. Debugging Linux* User-Mode Application
9.1. Debugging Linux* User-Mode Application x
9.1.1. Debugging a Linux Application with GDB 9.1.2. Debugging a Linux Application with RiscFree* IDE
9.1.1. Debugging a Linux Application with GDB x
9.1.1.1. Debugging with GDB Debug from Host PC Using Forwarding Ports 9.1.1.2. Debugging with GDB from Host PC with Intel® Simics® Simulator GDB Server
1. About This Document
2. Intel® Simics® Simulator and Virtual Platforms
3. Intel® Simics® Simulator for Intel® FPGAs Device Portfolio
4. Installing the Intel® Simics® Simulator for Intel® FPGAs
5. Getting Started with Intel® Simics® Simulator
6. Debugging Target Software
7. Networking with the Simulated Target System
8. Intel® Simics® Scripting
9. Software Debug Examples with Intel® Simics® Simulator
10. Document Revision History for Intel® Simics® Simulator for Intel FPGAs User Guide
A. Intel® Simics® Simulator Command Reference

6.2. Capturing Serial Console Output

When debugging target software, it is common to use the serial console in the virtual platform to display debug messages. It is also common to save the output of the serial console into a file so that it can be used as a reference when comparing with other log files obtained from a different debug session. For this, Intel® Simics® simulator provides some commands that allow you to create these log files under the host file system. These commands are described in the following: 

<SerialConsoleObject>.con.capture-start filename [-overwrite]
<SerialConsoleObject>.con.capture-stop
<SerialConsoleObject>.con.save-to-file filename [-overwrite]

where:

  • The capture-start command captures all output from the serial console to the file indicated by the filename argument starting from the moment in which this command is called. If -overwrite is specified, the file is overwritten, otherwise it is appended.
  • The capture-stop command is used after calling the capture-start command to stop the capture of the serial console into the file.
  • The save-to-file command saves the current output in the serial console (including scrollback data) to the file indicated by the filename argument. If -overwrite is specified, the file is overwritten, otherwise it is appended.

An example of how these commands are used is shown in the following:

# Intel Simics simulator CLI 

simics> r 200 ms
simics> system.board.fpga.soc_inst.hps_subsys.agilex_hps.console0.con.save-to-file serialPrev.log
Console screen saved to serialPrev.log
simics> system.board.fpga.soc_inst.hps_subsys.agilex_hps.console0.con.capture-start serialAfter.log
simics> r 300 ms
simics> system.board.fpga.soc_inst.hps_subsys.agilex_hps.console0.con.capture-stop
Capture to file 'serialAfter.log' stopped.
simics> r 2 s
simics> ls
serialAfter.log   serialPrev.log

In the capture above, you start the simulation running 200 ms. During this time, some messages are already printed in the serial console. To save the current messages into a file, use the save-to-file command with the file name serialPrev.log. The current content of this file is shown in the following and from these, you can see the initial messages that the system has sent to the serial console: 

# simicsPrev.log file

U-Boot SPL 2023.07-rc6 (Nov 02 2023 - 13:56:52 +0300)
Reset state: Cold
MPU          1500000 kHz
L4 Main       400000 kHz
L4 sys free   100000 kHz
L4 MP         200000 kHz
L4 SP         100000 kHz
:
:
U-Boot 2023.07 (Nov 02 2023 - 13:56:52 +0300)socfpga_agilex5
 
CPU:   Intel FPGA SoCFPGA Platform (ARMv8 64bit Cortex-A55/A76)
Model: SoCFPGA Agilex5 SoCDK
DRAM:  2 GiB

After this, you call the capture-start command to request that any new message be saved into the serialAfter.log file and run the simulation for a couple of seconds. The capture finishes by the time you call the capture-stop command. You run the simulation for two seconds, but the new messages displayed in the serial console during this time are not saved into any file. At this point, you called the ls command, and you can see that the two files were created under the project directory. The following capture shows the messages saved in the serialAfter.log file: 

# simicsAfter.log file

WDT:   Started with servicing (30s timeout)
MMC:   dwmmc0@ff808000: 0
Loading Environment from MMC... *** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment
 
In:    serial0@10c02000
Out:   serial0@10c02000
Err:   serial0@10c02000
Net:   
Warning: ethernet@10830000 (eth2) using random MAC address - 
ee:2e:23:61:08:17
eth0: ethernet@10830000
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  1
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