AI Engine Simulation - 2020.2 English

Versal ACAP Design Guide (UG1273)

Document ID
UG1273
Release Date
2021-03-26
Version
2020.2 English

AI Engine simulation tests applications running on the Versal ACAP AI Engines. The scope of this simulation is an arbitrary number of AI Engine graphs and kernels, and you can include PL kernels inside the graph modeled in C++ or SystemC. Two abstractions are supported, untimed (x86simulator) and cycle-approximate (aiesimulator), providing a trade-off between simulation speed and accuracy. The purpose of this simulation is to verify the functional correctness of the code and to validate performance in a standalone context, independently of interactions with other functions. When using the cycle-approximate abstraction, you can also use simulation results to improve the accuracy of the power estimation by more precisely calculating core vector load and memory access.

AI Engine simulation is available through the Vitis unified software platform. For more information, see AI Engine SystemC Simulator in the AI Engine Documentation flow of the Vitis Unified Software Platform Documentation (UG1416).

Note: AI Engine simulation is only possible in the platform-based design flow.