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

Download PDF
ID 784383
Date 5/09/2025
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

5.3.7. Capture of CLI Session to a File

Intel® Simics® simulator provides the ability to redirect the output of the CLI to a file in the host PC file system. This is helpful when you want to remember or track the commands that were entered in an Intel® Simics® simulation session for repeatability purposes. This is also helpful for debug purposes when you increase the log verbosity of the session (using the log-level command), and you want to send this to someone else for analysis.

Intel® Simics® simulator provides the ability to access the file system of the host PC from the CLI. This can be verified using the pwd, ls or cd commands. The functionality of these commands is equivalent to the same commands that Linux provides. By default, the CLI session runs in the same file system path in which the Intel® Simics® project was created. This path is returned when the pwd command is called. The ls command shows the items in the current path while the cd command allows to switch to a different directory. An example of these operations is as follows: 
# Intel Simics simulator CLI  

simics> pwd
Current directory is /home/simicsUser/SimicsInstallDir/project-1

simics> ls

.cproject            .settings    compiler.mk    modules         simics-gui
.modcache            GNUmakefile  config.mk      myImages        targets
.project             artifactory  doc            simics          
.project-properties  bin          documentation  simics-riscfree  

simics> cd targets
simics> pwd

Current directory is /home/simicsUser/SimicsInstallDir/project-1/targets

simics> cd ..

simics> pwd
Current directory is /home/simicsUser/SimicsInstallDir/project-1
Now, the commands used to capture the CLI output to a file are start-command-line-capture and stop-command-line-capture. As the name of the command indicates, the first command defines the moment in which the capture starts while the second one defines the moment in which the capture finishes. The syntax for these commands is the following. 
start-command-line-capture <filename> [-overwrite] [-append] [-timestamp]
stop-command-line-capture <filename>

For the start command, the file is not overwritten unless you specify the -overwrite flag. The -append flag allows the output to be appended to the specified file. An optional time stamp showing wall-clock time can be added at the start of each line, enabled with the -timestamp flag.

The following capture shows an example of this. Here, it can be seen that the SimicsCLI.log file was created. 
# Intel Simics simulator CLI 

simics> start-command-line-capture simicsCLI.log
Output captured to '/root/simicsUser/SimicsInstallDir/project-1/simicsCLI.log'
simics> help-search "breakpoint"
The text 'breakpoint' appears in the documentation
for the following items:
 
Command        <bank_instrumentation_subscribe>.bp-break-bank
Command        <bank_instrumentation_subscribe>.bp-run-until-bank
Command        <bank_instrumentation_subscribe>.bp-trace-bank
Command        <bank_instrumentation_subscribe>.bp-wait-for-bank
Command        <bp-manager.bank>.break
:
Hap            Core_Breakpoint_Memop
Hap            Core_Disable_Breakpoints

 
simics> stop-command-line-capture simicsCLI.log
simics> pwd

Current directory is /root/simicsUser/SimicsInstallDir/project-1

simics> ls

.cproject            .settings    compiler.mk    modules         simics-gui
.modcache            GNUmakefile  config.mk      myImages        simicsCLI.log
.project             artifactory  doc            simics          targets
.project-properties  bin          documentation  simics-eclipse
By reviewing the contents of the new log file ( SimicsCLI.log), you can confirm that the CLI was captured correctly from the time it started to the time it was stopped: 
# Host Terminal

$ cat simicsCLI.log
Output captured to '/root/simicsUser/SimicsInstallDir/project-1/simicsCLI.log'
simics> help-search "breakpoint"
The text 'breakpoint' appears in the documentation
for the following items:
 
Command        <bank_instrumentation_subscribe>.bp-break-bank
Command        <bank_instrumentation_subscribe>.bp-run-until-bank
Command        <bank_instrumentation_subscribe>.bp-trace-bank
Command        <bank_instrumentation_subscribe>.bp-wait-for-bank
:
Hap            Core_Breakpoint_Memop
Hap            Core_Disable_Breakpoints
 
simics> stop-command-line-capture simicsCLI.log
Level Two Title