5.Run Hardware Emulation - 2023.2 English

After packaging, everything is set to run emulation. Since you ran aiesimulator with profiling enabled, you can bring that to hardware emulation. You can pass the aiesim_options.txt to the launch_hw_emu.sh which will enable the profiling options used in aiesimulator to be applied to hardware emulation. To do this, add the -aie-sim-options ../aiesimulator_output/aiesim_options.txt.

1. To run emulation use the following command:

   make run_emu TARGET=hw_emu
   

   or

   cd ./sw
   ./launch_hw_emu.sh -aie-sim-options ../aiesimulator_output/aiesim_options.txt -add-env AIE_COMPILER_WORKDIR=../Work
   

   When launched, use the Linux prompt presented to run the design. Note that the emulation process is slow, so do not touch the keyboard of your terminal or you might stop the emulation of the Versal booth (as it happens in the real HW board).

2. Execute the following command when the emulated Linux prompt appears:

   cd /run/media/*1
   export XILINX_XRT=/usr
   dmesg -n 4 && echo "Hide DRM messages..."
   

   This will set up the design to run emulation and remove any unnecessary DRM messaging.

3. Run the design using the following command:

   ./host.exe a.xclbin
   

   Note: The design runs with dumping VCD, which will extend emulation time. It may seem as if it is hung, but it is not.

4. You should see an output displaying TEST PASSED. When this is shown, run the keyboard command: Ctrl+A x to end the QEMU instance.

5. To view the profiling results and trace in Vitis Analyzer, run the command:

   vitis_analyzer sw/sim/behav_waveform/xsim/default.aierun_summary
   

   

   When you open the run Summary, you will notice that it is the same layout as that from aiesimulator.

6. Click Trace. This will open up the VCD data (as defined in the aiesim_options.txt). This gives detailed information about kernels, tiles, and nets within the AI Engine during execution. Here you can see stalls in regards to each kernel and can help you identify where they are originating.

   

7. Click Profile. This will bring up the same view as shown for the profiling of the aiesimulator, but now it will have information gathered from running hardware emulation.

8. Click Total Function Time. Your display will appear as follows.

   

   Notice that the values here differ from those in aiesimulator.

   The final two views: Graph and Array are the same as in the aiesimulator run summary.

9. Open the aiesimulator run Summary by clicking File > Open Summary, navigating to the aiesimulator_output directory, and clicking default.aierun_summary.

   Explore the two reports and take note of any differences and similarities. This will help you debug and optimize your design.

10. Close out of the Vitis Analyzer and build for hardware.