Xilinx Tcl Store Integrates Aldec Simulators with Vivado IDE

Taking a cue from the open-source community, Xilinx has launched a Tcl Store that aggregates Tcl scripts contributed by the greater development community to expand the capabilities of the Vivado® Integrated Design Environment.

All Tcl scripts contributed to the Xilinx repository are free and re-distributable under an open-source license that is based on the Berkeley Source Distribution (BSD) model. Vivado users can now download apps from the Tcl Store that include practical bundles of Tcl scripts that act just like Vivado commands, including an app that can integrate Aldec Active-HDL and Riviera-PRO tools within the Vivado design flow.

To take advantage of these pre-packaged Tcl Script apps within Vivado, users can access the Tcl Store via the Vivado IDE “Tools” menu.

Or they can access Xilinx Tcl Store from the “Getting Started” page in Vivado IDE.

Xilinx Tcl Store offers a wide variety of apps, including an Active-HDL Simulator and a Riviera-PRO Simulator app that enables users to launch Aldec simulators directly from Vivado IDE.

Simply click on the “Install” button to select the Active-HDL Simulator or Riviera-PRO Simulator for the Vivado Integrated Design Environment.

This simulator integration app implements the simulation flow in Vivado IDE to allow users to compile, elaborate and simulate a design. To start this process, a user can set the target simulator in the simulation settings to ‘Active-HDL Simulator’ and then click on the ‘Run Simulation’ button in the IDE to launch the simulation. A user can also generate simulation scripts for the design in the ‘scripts only’ mode, in which case these self-contained, generated scripts can be executed in the simulation run directory.

More detailed instructions about how to run Riviera-PRO and Active-HDL as the default simulators from within the Vivado IDE can be found at these Aldec customer portal web pages:

                Riviera-PRO: Starting Riviera-PRO as the Default Simulator in Xilinx Vivado

                Active-HDL: Starting Active-HDL as the Default Simulator in Xilinx Vivado