Hardware Debugger Guide

Appendix B

Console Commands

Console commands are entered from the Console window. You can use console commands as an alternative to menu commands. Console commands do not display the dialog and message boxes associated with the menu commands. To get command feedback, you can use the Force command. Additionally, you can also turn on the Show Command Status check box in the Console window. This chapter contains the following sections.

To automate design debugging, you can copy commands from the Console window into a macro window to build macros. See the “Using Macros” section of the “Customizing the Interface” chapter for information.

Note: Do not use console commands until you are familiar with the graphical user interface commands because console commands must be executed in a particular order.

Conventions

The following is a summary of the syntax used for Console commands.

When an option occurs without parentheses “( )” next to the command name in the syntax, it is required. When it appears in square brackets “[ ],” the variable is optional.
When two or more options occur between braces “{ },” they must be entered with the command. If the options are separated by a vertical bar “|,” you must choose one of the possible parameters. If one term is divided into a subset of parameters that can be entered separately or together, each subparameter occurs between square brackets.

Alphabetical Listing of Commands

The following summarizes the console commands discussed in this chapter.

Baud	Sets the baud rate
Cable	Sets the cable options
Clock	Sets the clock options
Display	Selects the signals to debug
Download	Programs target device with the current design
Exit	Exits the Hardware Debugger
Force	Displays or hides the message boxes
Group	Defines groups of signals for debugging
Open	Loads the configuration data
Port	Selects the communications port
Readfpga	Reads the device states using the specified debugging settings (snapshot number, signals, and groups)
Reset	Reinitializes the target device
Run	Executes the macro in the current macro window
Setmode	Selects the debugging mode, synchronous or asynchronous
Trigger	Selects the source of the readback trigger
Verify	Verifies the design was downloaded correctly

Note: The Clock, Display, Group, Readfpga, and Setmode commands are not available when using the MultiLINX Cable.

Baud

Use this command to set the cable baud rate

Syntax

baud rate

Parameters

This command has one parameter.

rate specifies the rate at which the data is transferred between the computer and the serial or XChecker Cable and MultiLINX Cable; this parameter can be set to {9600 | 19200 | 38400 | 15200}

Note: The 115200 baud rate is valid only on HP and PC platforms. For the MultiLINX Cable replace “115200” with “57600”.

Examples

Following is an example of how to specify the Baud command.

baud 38400

Abbreviations

You can abbreviate the Baud command as follows

baud

bau

Cable

Use this command to set the cable options and to specify the type of cable.

Syntax

cable {option | name}

Parameters

The variables of the Cable command are further divided into the following parameters.

option {-reset | -check | -pins}
- -reset reprograms the XChecker cable.
- -check tests the cable operation.
- -pins checks the logic levels of the XChecker pins.
name {multilinx | xchecker | serial | parallel}
- multilinx establishes communication with the MultiLINX cable
- xchecker establishes communication with the XChecker cable.
- serial establishes communication with a serial cable.
- parallel establishes communication with a parallel cable.

Examples

Following are examples of how to specify the Cable command.

cable -pins

cable -xchecker

Abbreviations

You can abbreviate the Cable command and its options as follows.

`cable`	`cab`
`-reset`	`-rs`
`-check`	`-chk`
`-pins`	`-pn`

Clock

The Clock command is a synchronous mode debugging option. It enables you to specify the clock options, namely the clock type and speed. It also enables you to specify the number of clocks to apply to the target device during debugging.

Syntax

The syntax of the Clock command is the following.

clock {[source][speed] | apply_clocks | control_option}

Parameters

The variables of the Clock command are further divided into the following parameters.

source {-internal | -external}
- -internal sets the clock source to XChecker internal clock
- -external sets the clock source to external/user clock
speed -speed {1|3|5|11}
- -speed sets the speed of the clock.
apply_clocks -apply {number}
- -apply cycles the device forward the number of clocks you specify
control_option {-stop | -resume}
- -stop interrupts the clock source
- -resume resumes the clock source

Examples

Following are examples of how to specify the Clock command.

clock -internal -speed 3

clock -apply 4

clock -stop

Abbreviations

You can abbreviate the Clock command and its options as follows.

`clock`	`clk`
`-internal`	`-int`
`-external`	`-ext`
`-apply`	`-ap`
`-stop`	`-st`
`-resume`	`-res`

Display

The Display command specifies which nets to debug.

Syntax

The syntax of the Display command is the following.

display operation list_of_signals

Parameters

The variables of the Display command are further divided into the following parameters.

operation {-del | -add}
- -del deletes the specified list of signals and/or group names from the display list
- -add adds the specified signals and group names to the display list
list_of_signals { [list_of_sinals] [group_names] | *}
- list_of_signals is the list of signals you wish to probe
- group_names is the list of defined signal groups you wish to probe
- * is the complete list of signals and groups in your design if you are adding signals. It refers to the signals in the display list if you are removing signals.

Examples

Following are examples of how to specify the Display command.

display -add A B C D E F G ALUOUT SWITCHES

display -del *

Abbreviations

You can abbreviate the Display command as follows.

display

dply

Download

Use the Download command to program a device by downloading the current design to that device.

Syntax

The syntax of the Download command is the following.

download [-verify]

Parameters

The Download command has one parameter.

-verify reads back the data that was downloaded to the target device and compares it to the original data.

Examples

Following is an example of how to specify the Download command.

download -verify

Abbreviations

You can abbreviate the Download command as follows.

`download`	`dn`
`-verify`	`-v`

Exit

The Exit command enables you to exit the Hardware Debugger program.

Syntax

The syntax of the Exit command is the following.

exit

Parameters

The Exit command has no parameters.

Examples

Following is an example of how to specify the Exit command.

exit

Abbreviations

You can abbreviate the Exit command as follows.

exit

ex

Force

The Force command enables you to display or hide information dialog boxes while a macro is running.

Syntax

The syntax of the Force command is the following.

force setting

Parameters

The parameters of the Force command are the following.

setting {-on | -off}

-on displays the information dialog boxes
-off hides the information dialog boxes

Examples

Following is an example of how to specify the Force command.

force -on

Abbreviations

You can abbreviate the Force command and its options as follows.

`force`	`for`
`-on`	`-o`
`-off`	`-f`

Group

The Group command enables you to specify signal groups to debug as entities. It also allows you to delete existing groups of signals.

Syntax

The syntax of the Group command is the following.

group {del_group | new_group}

Parameters

The variables of the Group command can be divided into the following parameters.

del_group is -del groupname list_of_signals
- -del deletes the specified signals from the specified group name
- groupname is the name of the group you are defining
- list_of_signals is the list of signals you are adding or removing from the group
new_group is groupname list_of_signals and adds the specified signals and group names to the display list
- groupname is the name of the group you are defining
- list_of_signals is the list of signals you are adding or removing from the group

Examples

Following is an example of how to specify the Group command.

group aluout ALU0 ALU1 ALU2 ALU3 ALU4

group -del aluout ALU2

Abbreviations

You can abbreviate the Group command as follows.

group

gp

Open

The Open command opens a file for downloading.

Syntax

The syntax of the Open command is the following.

open file

Parameters

The variables of the Open command can be divided into the following parameters.

file {\file_path\file_name} or file {/file_path/file_name}

file_path is the drive and directory in which your design is located
file_name is the name of the design you want to open

Examples

Following is an example of how to specify the Open command.

open C:\TMP\4KACALC\CALC4K.BIT

Abbreviations

You can abbreviate the Open command as follows.

open

op

Port

The Port command enables you to select the communications port you need for your cable.

Syntax

The syntax of the Port command is the following.

port port_name

Parameters

The parameters of the Port command are the following.

port_name is

{auto} for auto-detection of cable

{com1 | com2 | com3 | com4} for XChecker or serial cables on PC platforms

{/dev/tty00 | /dev/tty01} for XChecker or serial cables on HP platforms

{/dev/ttya | /dev/ttyb} for XChecker or serial cables on Sun platforms

{lpt1 | lpt2 | lpt3 | lpt4} for parallel cable only

Examples

Following are examples of how to specify the Port command.

port com1

port lpt2

Abbreviations

You can abbreviate the Port command as follows.

port

po

Readfpga

The Readfpga command enables you to capture snapshots of the states of a device.

Syntax

The syntax of the Readfpga command is the following.

readfpga snapshots

Parameters

The parameters of the Readfpga command are snapshots {1-65534}

Examples

Following is an example of how to specify the Readfpga command.

readfpga 4

Abbreviations

You can abbreviate the Readfpga command as follows.

readfpga

rea

Reset

The Reset command enables you to reset the FPGA. The reset signal is active-Low.

Syntax

The syntax of the Reset command is the following.

reset

Parameters

There are no parameters for the Reset command.

Examples

Following is an example of how to specify the Reset command.

reset

Abbreviations

You can abbreviate the Reset command as follows.

reset

res

Run

The Run Command executes the macro defined in the current macro window.

Syntax

The syntax of the Run command is the following.

run file_name

Parameters

The Run command has one parameter.

file_name is the name of the design you want to run

Examples

Following is an example of how to specify the Run command.

run calc4k.bit

Abbreviations

You can abbreviate the Run command as follows.

run

rn

Setmode

The Setmode command enables you to set the debugging mode.

Syntax

The syntax of the Setmode command is the following.

setmode debugmode

Parameters

The parameters of the Setmode command are the following.

debugmode {-sync | -async}
- -sync turns on the synchronous mode debugging
- -async turns on the asynchronous mode debugging

Examples

Following is an example of how to specify the Setmode command.

setmode -sync

Abbreviations

You can abbreviate the Setmode command and its options as follows.

`setmode`	`md`
`-synch`	`-s`
`-async`	`-as`

Trigger

The Trigger command specifies the source of the readback trigger.

Syntax

The syntax of the Trigger command is the following.

trigger {timing | clocksettings | option}

Parameters

The parameters of the Trigger command are the following.

timing {-immediately | -external | -enterkey} sets the trigger type
clocksettings -clock {before_first_snapshot between_snapshots} specifies the clock patterns to apply to the target device.
option {-timeout num | -reset}
- {-timeout num} specifies the cutoff time for a trigger to be received
- -reset reinitializes the target device

Examples

Following is an example of how to specify the Trigger command.

trigger -immediately -clock 2 2 -timeout 10-reset

Abbreviations

You can abbreviate the Trigger command as follows.

trigger

tr

Verify

The Verify command enables you to verify that the design was downloaded correctly.

Syntax

The syntax of the Verify command is the following.

verify

Parameters

The Verify command has no parameters.

Examples

Following is an example of how to specify the Verify command.

verify

Abbreviations

You can abbreviate the Verify command as follows.

verify

ver