NCLaunch User Guide
Product Version 3.1
June 2000
2000 Cadence Design Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
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NCLaunch User Guide
Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
About This Manual
Manual Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Typographic and Syntax Conventions
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Platform Support
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Related Manuals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Related Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Verilog Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
VHDL Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1
Overview of NCLaunch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Usage Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Environment
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Customization of File Types and Available Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Tools and Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Saving and Restoring Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Invocation and Command Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
NCLaunch Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Importing a Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Exporting a Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2
Using NCLaunch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Menu Bar
File Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Edit Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Tools Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Utilities Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
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Help Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
File Browser
Library Browser
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Console Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Status Bar
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Tool Bar
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Preface
NCLaunch is a graphical user interface that helps you to manage large design projects and
lets you configure and launch your Cadence simulation tools. NC Launch is integrated into
the Cadence Interleaved Native Compiled Architecture (INCA) and is a component of the
Affirma™ SimVision analysis environment.
This preface discusses the following topics:
n
About This Manual
n Related Manuals
n Related Resources
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About This Manual
To use NCLaunch most effectively, you should be familiar with performing digital design and
analysis using either the Verilog® Hardware Description Language (HDL), or the Very High
Speed Integrated Circuit Hardware Description Language (VHDL), and you should be familiar
with the Verilog-XL® , Affirma™ NC VHDL, and/or Affirma™ NC simulators.
Manual Organization
This manual is organized into the following sections:
If You Want to Learn About
You Should Read
The use model and startup procedure of
NCLaunch
Chapter 1, “Overview of NCLaunch,”
Using NCLaunch
Chapter 2, “Using NCLaunch,”
Typographic and Syntax Conventions
The following syntax conventions are used in this manual:
Font
Italic
Literal
Meaning
Titles of books
Example
See the AffirmaNC Verilog
Simulator Help for more information.
Program output or text that
you type at the command line
> nclaunch
variable
Variables
Hypertext Link
Hypertext links that take you
to other relevant sections of
this book or to other relevant
books
> nclaunch -cdslib filename
See the File Manager section for more
information.
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Preface
Platform Support
NCLaunch supports the same set of platforms that the NC products support for current
release. These platforms include: Solaris 2.5.1, Solaris 2.7, HP 10.20, HP 11.0, NT 4.0, Linux
Redhat 6.1 and Windows 98.
Related Manuals
You can use NCLaunch with the Affirma™ NC Verilog®, Affirma™ NC VHDL®, and Affirma™
NC simulators. The following documents give you more information about these products:
n
n
n
n
n
n
If you want to use the Affirma™ NC Verilog simulator to simulate your design, you should
read the Affirma™ NC Verilog Simulator Help.
If you want to use the Affirma™ NC VHDL simulator to simulate your design, you should
read the Affirma™ NC VHDL Simulator Help.
If you want to simulate a mixed-language Verilog HDL and VHDL design, you should read
the appropriate sections in either the Affirma™ NC VHDL Simulator Help or the
Affirma™ NC Verilog Simulator Help.
If you want to use the Affirma™ SimVision analysis environment, you should read the
Affirma™ SimVision Analysis Environment User Guide.
If you want to use the Signalscan Waves waveform viewing tool, you should read the
Signalscan Waves User Guide.
If you want to use the Comparescan waveform comparison tool, you should read the
Comparescan User Guide.
Related Resources
Hardware design requires the knowledge of one or more of several special languages—such
as Verilog and VHDL. The following books give you more information about these languages.
Verilog Resources
The following books detail the specifications of the Verilog HDL (Hardware Description
Language) and Tcl (Tool Command Language). These include:
n
IEEEStandardHardwareDescriptionLanguageBasedontheVerilogHardware
Description Language (IEEE Std 1364), IEEE, New York, October, 1996.
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Preface
n OVI Verilog Hardware Description Language Reference Manual, Version 2.0
n Ousterhout, John K., Tcl and the Tk Toolkit, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1994.
There are also several books available that show you how to use the Verilog HDL. These
include:
n Donald E. Thomas and Philip Moorby, TheVerilogHardwareDescriptionLanguage,
Kluwer Academic Publishing, 1996.
n
n
n
E. Sternheim, R. Singh and Y. Trivedi, Digital Design With Verilog HDL, Chapman &
Hall, 1991.
E. Sternheim, DigitalDesignandSynthesisWithVerilogHDL, Automata Publishing
Company, 1993.
J. Bhasker, A Verilog HDL Primer, Star Galaxy Press, 1997.
n Douglas J. Smith, HDL Chip Design: A Practical Guide for Designing,
Synthesizing and Simulating ASICs and FPGAs Using VHDL or Verilog, Doone
Publications, 1996.
n
n
Samir Palnitkar, Verilog HDL: A Guide to Digital Design and Synthesis, Prentice
Hall, 1996.
James M. Lee, Verilog Quickstart, Kluwer Academic Publishing, 1997.
VHDL Resources
The following books detail the specifications of the Very High Speed Integrated Circuit
Hardware Description Language (VHDL). These include:
n
n
IEEEStandardVHDLLanguageReferenceManual(IEEE Std 1076 - 1987), IEEE,
New York, March 1988.
IEEEStandardVHDLLanguageReferenceManual(IEEE Std 1076 - 1993), IEEE,
New York, June 1994.
There are also several books available that show you how to use VHDL. These include:
n Douglas J. Smith, HDL Chip Design: A Practical Guide for Designing,
Synthesizing & Simulating ASICs & FPGAs Using VHDL or Verilog, Doone
Publications, June 1996.
n Douglas L. Perry, VHDL 3rd Edition, McGraw Hill Text, June 1998.
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Preface
n
n
Peter J. Ashenden, Designer’s Guide to VHDL, Morgan Kaufman Publishers,
December 1995.
Stanley Mazor, Patricia Langstraat, A Guide to VHDL 2nd edition, Kluwer Academic
Publishers, August 1993.
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