vhdl code for noc simulation

[amin_rz]

Hi
I am a beginner.
I want to learn VHDL for noc simulation (specifically noc router and buffer micro-architecture). I just know that VHDL is a programming language but I have no idea how can I use it and which simulators use VHDL. now these are my questions:
1- which simulator is good for noc architecture?
2- how can I install VHDL and that simulator? and from where I can download a free version?
3-which one is better for VHDL? windows 7 or linux(ubuntu)?

 

[TrickyDicky]

VHDL is NOT a programming language. It is a hardware description language. Using it like a programming language will cause you all sorts of problems.

As to your questions.
1. All simulators have their pros and cons. None of them specific to NoC, as the design will have nothing to do with simulation performance. The main simulators are Mentor's Questa, Cadence NCSim, Aldec's Active HDL and Xilinx Isim. Questa/modelsim is available with a free limited licence from Altera via it's webpack download. Isim is part of the ISE/Vivado design suite (which you may have to pay for). But you will need to pay for a full version of any of these tools.

There is also the open source GHDL - it is free, but as with all open source tools - dont expect any decent support.

2. VHDL is just a text lanuage - so any text editor will do. Notepad++ is pretty good (and free) for windows and has built in VHDL syntax highliting. For Linux there are plenty of free text editors.

3. They both work just fine. Its nothing to do with VHDL itself - its the tools you decide to use.

 

[ads-ee]

1. As you are using VHDL (Questa natively supports System Verilog and is more expensive), unless you plan on using SV for your testbench then for a VHDL only design you could use just use Modelsim.

ISE has ISIM
Vivado has XSIM
The simulation engines are different, XSIM does support some of the SV syntax and seems to support some of the VHDL 2008 syntax I haven't explored the extent of support. ISIM's support of either is rather spotty since the last time I checked around the 14.1 - 14.4 time frame.
XSIM is included in the webpack version without extra cost, but I don't know if there are any restrictions on the performance.