Ambit BuildGates Synthesis User Guide

Using the GUI

The Browsers

BuildGates synthesis provides the following browsers.

■The Module Browser

■The Variable Browser

To display the module browser or variable browser listing such that it occupies the whole main screen window instead of only a portion of the window, place the cursor in the browser portion and press the Control-m keys. Repeatedly pressing Control-m toggles between the standard split-screen and the whole-screen display.

The module and variable browsers contain commands that have ac_shell command line equivilalents. For a cross-reference between these commands and ac_shell command line commands, refer to Appendix B, “Quick Reference”.

The Module Browser

The module browser is a hierarchical module and instance browser, which displays top modules and hierarchical instances of the modules. It is similar to using the report_hierarchy -instance command in ac_shell.

To open a design file and view the hierarchy of a module, click the Open File icon on the tool bar. A window similar to the one shown in Figure 3-20 is displayed.

Figure 3-20 Sample Open Design File Window

Ambit BuildGates Synthesis User Guide

Using the GUI

1.Click the desired module category button on the middle column of the window.

2.Browse for or type in the desired file on the left side of the window. For example, select clock_test.tcl.

3.Click Ok to display the module browser window; a sample window is shown in

Figure 3-21.

Figure 3-21 Sample Module Browser

instance name

module name

module state

In the module browser, the three levels of hierarchy are instance name, module name, and module state. Instance name is the name of the instance, which must be instance unique. Module name is the name of the module in the design and can be called any number of times from more than one instance. The module state indicator shows the state of that particular module. The available module states are: blackbox (b), generic (g), optimized (o), mapped (m), and don’t modify (x). Table 3-26 defines the color and symbol associations of the module states.

The modules can be expanded and collapsed by clicking on + and - indicators. The module browser displays multiple trees, single trees, or branches of a tree. The number of expanded levels displayed depends on the default value set in “display depth” in the browser options screen (refer to Table 3-8 on page 48). Viewing a branch displays the “selected” module as the top of a single tree. Branch viewing is used for large designs with many levels of hierarchy.

Ambit BuildGates Synthesis User Guide

Using the GUI

Note: If the state of the module browser gets confused or it is not updated, double click on the desired module to redraw the contents of the browser with the current information or use the Module Browser–Rebuild Tree command.

Table 3-26 Module Type with Symbol and Color Association

Module Browser Pop-Up Menu

The module browser has a context sensitive pop-up menu, which is activated in the background of the display area.

To activate the browser pop-up menu:

1.Click and hold the right mouse button to activate in the context sensitive background area in the browser window.

2.Move the mouse arrow to the desired option on the pop-up menu.

Ambit BuildGates Synthesis User Guide

Using the GUI

3. Release the right mouse button to select the option.

The browser pop-up menu options are described below.

Table 3-27 Module Browser Pop-Up Menu