Starting Riviera-PRO as the Default Simulator in Microchip Libero

Introduction

This document describes how to start Riviera-PRO from Microchip Libero to run pre-synthesis, post-synthesis and post-layout simulations. This application note has been verified on Riviera-PRO 2021.10 and Libero 2021.3.

Installing Riviera-PRO libraries in Libero

In order to run the simulation successfully, depending on the design either VHDL or Verilog, Riviera-PRO libraries have to be installed in Libero. You can install precompiled Microchip libraries in multiple ways:

If you have received a web link to download Riviera-PRO, you will find the links on the same page to download Microchip libraries.
Pre-compiled Riviera-PRO libraries are also available at Microchip
At any time you can visit Aldec's Support Center at Support Portal

Set Riviera-PRO as Simulator in Libero Design Flow

Once an Microchip Libero project is opened, options for the Microchip Libero project can be set in the Profile window (from main menu Project | Tool Profiles…) as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1

In the Tool Profiles window, select Simulation and click on the plus (+) sign. To replace the default simulator with Riviera-PRO, please type Riviera-PRO in the Name field, select Riviera-PRO as Tool integration and then click the Browse button to specify the location of the Riviera-PRO executable. You will need to browse to the Riviera-PRO installation folder, go to the \BIN subfolder, and select the riviera.exe file. Click OK. Figure 2 illustrates this.

Figure 2

Riviera-PRO should now appear in the Tool Profiles selected as a default HDL simulator, see Figure 3.

Figure 3

Configuring your Libero Project Settings

Before running a simulation, you will need to prepare your Libero project with all needed HDL sources and specify the proper stimulus. Once all of the HDL source files are in the Libero project, it is important that the users go to menu Project | Project Settings... and click on the DO File option under the Simulation as shown below.

Figure 4

The libero tool is capable of launching Riviera-PRO simulation with automatically generated scripts (DO file). If you choose to do so, please make sure you select the proper values for:

Simulation runtime
Testbench module name
Top level instance name in the testbench

Configuring the Simulation Library settings

If your design is using any components from Microchip device library you will have to set the right path for the library to be used. This is especially important in case if you are running timing (post-layout) simulation.

Go to the menu Project | Project Settings.... Under Simulation Libraries, select the target device.

Set the library path to the location of the pre-compiled library in Riviera-PRO. For instance, C:/Aldec/Riviera-PROxx.x/vlib/microsemi/smartfusion2/smartfusion2.

Figure 5

Now you should be ready to run your simulation in Riviera-PRO.

Starting Riviera-PRO from Libero

To start Riviera-PRO from Libero IDE, simply double-click the level of simulation as shown below.

Figure 6

Riviera-PRO will be invoked. Compilation and simulation messages will be printed to the Console window. The waveform window will automatically open and signals will be traced as shown below.

Figure 7

Please note that you can use the simulation control buttons (Run, Run Until, Run For and Riviera-PRO Restart Simulation) to control the simulation. For example, you can restart the simulation without leaving Riviera-PRO by clicking on the button for Restart Simulation. The simulation control buttons are located on top of the waveform window.