In the simulation framework, the AI Engine simulator can generate a detailed dump of the hardware
signals in the form of value change dump (VCD) files. A defined set of abstract
events describes the execution of a multi-kernel AI Engine program in terms of these events. The output of a VCD file
is enabled using the aiesimulator --dump-vcd
command.
After simulation, or emulation, the VCD file can be processed into events and viewed on a timeline in the Vitis IDE. The events contain information such as time stamps, different event types, and data associated with each event. This information can be correlated to the compiler generated debug information. This includes program counter values mapped to function names and instruction offsets, and source level symbolic data offsets for memory accesses.
The abstract AI Engine events are independent of the VCD format and will be directly extracted from the hardware. The events traces can be produced as plain text, comma-separated values (CSV), or in waveform database (WDB), and the generated event trace data can be viewed in the Analysis View of the Vitis unified IDE.