Active HDL Entity Retention

I have multiple entities in a file. I renamed one of them. The design bro wser now shows both the old entity and the new one. It won't allow me to d o anything with the old entity like delete it. The name of the old entity no longer shows up anywhere in the file. Any idea how to get rid of this p hantom entity?

I finally tried deleting the library and recompiling which seems to have do ne the trick. Seems like an extreme measure to clean up a library of old c rap. Any idea why that is needed?

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  Rick C. 

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Rick C
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wser now shows both the old entity and the new one. It won't allow me to do anything with the old entity like delete it. The name of the old entity no longer shows up anywhere in the file. Any idea how to get rid of this phan tom entity?

done the trick. Seems like an extreme measure to clean up a library of old crap. Any idea why that is needed?

This is typical for probably all the EDA tools. I use VCS, which is a lot nicer than Aldec, and I still have to wipe out old files sometimes. Someti mes the simulation doesn't change even though I've modified the source code , and I have to use a Unix alias I designed for the task to wipe out all li braries and archived files so it will start anew.

Reply to
Kevin Neilson

rowser now shows both the old entity and the new one. It won't allow me to do anything with the old entity like delete it. The name of the old entity no longer shows up anywhere in the file. Any idea how to get rid of this ph antom entity?

e done the trick. Seems like an extreme measure to clean up a library of ol d crap. Any idea why that is needed?

t nicer than Aldec, and I still have to wipe out old files sometimes. Some times the simulation doesn't change even though I've modified the source co de, and I have to use a Unix alias I designed for the task to wipe out all libraries and archived files so it will start anew.

That's just strange. Another issue I have is because I won't bury my sourc e files in their tool project hierarchy. So every time I change a file I h ave to copy it to their directory. That's not a huge hassle, but the tool seems to know I'm doing this and knows when the original files change. The y will flag the local (to the tool) copy as out of date... but typically no t until I've already copied it into the tool directory and compiled and ev en started running it. Or I will have the lower level files compiling with out errors and the working on the next level up when it tells me the lower level files is out of data.

Goofy damn software. I wish it would just work with the files I give it ra ther than making a copy in the mess of directories they create.

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  Rick C. 

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Rick C

The library on all tools keeps the old entities around until you delete the library or delete specific items from the library (if the tool allows this).

As a practice, you should be deleting your library on a regular basis - for example before any regression run. The reasoning is below.

Before I go there, one thing that may make ActiveHDL easier to use is to use the OSVVM scripting environment (it is free, open source). The OSVVM scripting environment switches ActiveHDL to tcl mode and adds a layer of procedures in front of all the tool commands - this way we can create a uniform set of commands to create libraries, analyze (compile) designs, and run simulations that works on different simulators (currently ActiveHDL, VsimSA, RivieraPro, ModelSim, and QuestaSim). Scripts for GHDL are a work in progress and are working, but a challenge to use. You can find it at:

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I should note though currently they just use VHDL-2008 - which is ok for RTL and good for testbench.

You can use the OSVVM scripting environment to just run scripts, run interactively from the command line if you like this, or just to simplify the set up of your initial ActiveHDL environment. It also allows you to easily switch between the supported simulators - which hopefully we will be expanding some time later this year or early next.

Now, why do I need to delete libraries on a regular basis? One rule you may be aware of is that VHDL's default binding always selects the most recently analyzed (compiled) design unit (entity, architecture, ...). However the weasel words were left out. What it should say is default binding always selects the most recently successfully analyzed design unit.

This means that if you leave an old architecture laying around in your library as you run regressions and the current architecture fails to analyze, it will simulate the old one.

Hence, you need to delete your libraries before you make regression runs.

Cheers, Jim

Reply to
Jim Lewis

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I'm not up on my VHDL terminology so I'm not clear on what is meant by "ana lyze", but I looked it up and that seems pretty clear (maybe there are some subtleties not explained in two or three paragraphs). Doesn't the tool in form you that the architecture is out of date vs. the source that was last compiled? Would the compile errors not be obvious?

I'm working with the GUI which flags each file as having compile errors, be ing out of date or presently compiled and in the library. I believe it com plains if I try to simulate with old libraries even if I can ignore the war nings.

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  Rick C. 

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Rick C

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