VHDL Simulator Options

[Mike Kopp]

We have three licenses for Mentor formerly Innoveda formerly Synopsys
formerly ViewLogic Fusion/Speedwave which we use for VHDL simulation.
Mentor is dropping Fusion/Speedwave since they already have Modelsim.
Unfortunately they are telling us to throw several thousand dollars at
them to convert the Fusion/Speedwave licenses to Modelsim licenses.
If we have to spend money to get a new simulator then that opens up
the field to other vendors. Does anyone have any recomendations for
VHDL simulators running on a PC under Windows?

The FAQ has some info on simulators but some of it appears to be out
of date.

 

[Allan Herriman]

We have three licenses for Mentor formerly Innoveda formerly Synopsys
formerly ViewLogic Fusion/Speedwave which we use for VHDL simulation.
Mentor is dropping Fusion/Speedwave since they already have Modelsim.
Unfortunately they are telling us to throw several thousand dollars at
them to convert the Fusion/Speedwave licenses to Modelsim licenses.
If we have to spend money to get a new simulator then that opens up
the field to other vendors. Does anyone have any recomendations for
VHDL simulators running on a PC under Windows?

The FAQ has some info on simulators but some of it appears to be out
of date.

First establish whether you wish to do pure VHDL, or VHDL with "FLI",
or VHDL - Verilog cosimulation, or perhaps VHDL - Verilog - EDIF
cosimulation, or VHDL - EDIF cosimulation, or whatever.
(Note: some models are only available in (compiled) Verilog or EDIF.)

This may narrow the field somewhat (e.g. Modelsim doesn't do EDIF, but
Aldec does).

Also consider that you may wish to run an (ASIC) model from a vendor
which is only available compiled for certain simulators.
My experience has been that the ASIC vendor will have a copy of
Modelsim (and is prepared to compile models using that it), but won't
have heard of the cheaper tools.

BTW, the cheapest, fully featured VHDL simulator is (IMO) Simili. It
doesn't do any cosimulation or FLI though.

Regards,
Allan.

 

[JK]

I have used Aldec's ActiveHDL for many years and found it to be very easy to
use, with a very good graphical waveform viewer. You can try it out
yourself by downloading a 20-day evaluation from their website,
www.aldec.com.

Regards,
Jeff

 

[FE]

Also consider that you may wish to run an (ASIC) model from a vendor

which is only available compiled for certain simulators.
My experience has been that the ASIC vendor will have a copy of
Modelsim (and is prepared to compile models using that it), but won't
have heard of the cheaper tools.

nc-sim (nc-verilog, nc-vhdl) is normally supported too. I never used it but
some people said to me that nc is the fastest simulator.

regards
fe