How to Trace a Signal in the DVT Eclipse IDE - Part II - How to Inspect the Trace Path

Overview

This part of the Trace video series deals with analyzing the result of the Trace Operation in the Trace Connections View. The Trace Connections View panels, toolbar buttons and common actions are explained.

Details

Introduction

The first part of this series shows how to perform a trace operation. We'll focus now on inspecting the results in the Trace Connections view.

Trace Connections View

The left pane shows you the subset of the design hierarchy influenced by the traced signal. Select an instance to see its ports and internal signals which are reached by the traced signal. Instances not reached by the traced signal are filtered out.

You can show the entire design hierarchy by pressing the Trace in Full Hierarchy button on the toolbar. From the toolbar, you can also toggle between the different trace operations: Trace Drive, Trace Load, or Trace Drive and Load.

Notice that some instances have colored decorations:

• For a trace drive operation, the sources of the traced signal are shown with a red bullet point.
• For a trace load operation, destinations are shown with a green bullet point.

Any connected signal has a direct drive or load path to or from the traced signal.

To inspect the path, right-click on the signal and select Show Path. A step-by-step list is shown in the lower view pane made up of the signal declarations, instance port connections, and combinational logic statements. The writers and readers of the connected signal are also shown.

Click the up and down arrows or use the associated keyboard shortcuts to navigate the list and inspect source code.