Step 3: Running Behavioral Simulation - 2020.2 English

Vivado Design Suite Tutorial: Logic Simulation (UG937)

Document ID
UG937
Release Date
2021-01-21
Version
2020.2 English
After you have created a Vivado® project for the tutorial design, you set up and launch Vivado® simulator to run behavioral simulation. Set the behavioral simulation properties in Vivado® tools:
  1. In the Flow Navigator, right-click Simulation and then click Simulation Settings. Alternatively, click Settings in the Flow Navigator under Project Manager to open the Settings window. Select Simulation from the Settings window. The following defaults are automatically set:
    • Simulation set: select sim_1
    • Simulation top-module name: set testbench
  2. In the Elaboration tab (figure below), ensure that the debug level is set to typical, which is the default value.

  3. In the Simulation tab, observe that the Simulation Run Time is 1000ns.
  4. Click OK.

    With the simulation settings properly configured, you can launch the Vivado simulator to perform a behavioral simulation of the design.

  5. In the Flow Navigator, click Run Simulation > Run Behavioral Simulation.

    Functional and timing simulations are available post-synthesis and post-implementation. Those simulations are outside the scope of this tutorial.

    When you launch the Run Behavioral Simulation command, the Vivado tool runs xvlog and xvhdl to analyze the design and xelab in the background to elaborate and compile the design into a simulation snapshot, which the Vivado simulator can run. When that process is complete, the Vivado tool launches xsim to run the simulation.

    In the Vivado IDE, the simulator GUI opens after successfully parsing and compiling the design (figure below). By default, the top-level HDL objects display in the Waveform window.