gnupic: Re: Trace logging in gpsim
Subject:
RFC: Trace logging in gpsim
From:
Scott Dattalo ####@####.####
Date:
6 Sep 2000 02:35:04 -0000
Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.4.21.0009051957510.21363-100000@tempest2.blackhat.net>
For some time (like 2 years) I've wanted to add trace logging to gpsim. Right
now, gpsim logs nearly everything it does to a rather larger (but compile time
defined) circular buffer. I would like to enhance this so that the circular
buffer is periodically dumped to a file. Furthermore, I'd like to create some
tool that can parse this log file and produce profiles or waveforms.
But before proceeding, I'd like to get some feed back.
First of all, is this going to be useful?
Second, what are some of the things you'd like to see in the profiler? The wave
viewer?
For the profiler, I was thinking of something simple like a histogram plot. The
x-axis would be the program memory location, the y-axis would be the number of
times that address was encountered. A similar plot could be created for the
register memory.
For the waveform viewer, I was thinking of something that would allow you to
plot things like the value of a register as a function of time or perhaps the
value of a bit in a register as a function of time.
Some of the packages I'm thinking about using or at least investigating are:
gtkplot: http://www.ifir.edu.ar/grupos/gtk/
This is another of Adrian Feiguin widgets. We already use his gtksheet widget
for the register viewer and program memory viewer.
gtkwave: http://daggit.pagecreator.com/ver/wave/
This is a full featured waveform viewer used to view the output of Verilog
simulations. I'm almost tempted to convert the gpsim log files to verilog format
just so that they may be viewed with gtkwave! The only thing it lacks is a way
to view data as an analog waveform. In other words, if the data is more than one
bit wide, then it is lumped together and a number is printed (within the
waveform). (This is useful for viewing an address bus, but not the value of A/D
conversion register.)
gwave: http://www.geda.seul.org/tools/gwave/index.html
This a waveform viewer for spice outputs. It's the opposite extreme from gtkwave
in that it only plots analog data.
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Another feature I'd like to see in the viewer is a waveform editor. I'd like
this to be capable of creating stimulus files that can be fed back into gpsim.
If anyone has any opinions or ideas I'd like to hear them!
Scott
