Saving/loading snapshot configurations, Batch mode, 10 saving/loading snapshot configurations – Achronix ACE Version 5.0 User Manual

Page 305: 11 batch mode

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Running the SnapShot Debugger

Chapter 4. Tasks

Activating SnapShot

Once all the fields in the

SnapShot Debugger view

are configured, and the design is running on the target

device, SnapShot is ready to be activated.

Select the Arm button (or the Arm SnapShot (

) button in the SnapShot Debugger view’s toolbar), and the

SnapShot debugging tool will begin to analyze the already-executing design in real-time.

Once Armed, ACE will send the configuration data to the SnapShot Debugger running on the Achronix
device, wait for the trigger condition(s) to be met, retrieve the trace buffer contents, and output a VCD file
as well as a LOG file.

The SnapShot Log file and SnapShot Waveform file are populated with the captured results, and the files
are opened in ACE. (The log file will open in an ACE

Text Editor

, while the waveform (

.vcd

) file will open

in the ACE

VCD Waveform Editor

.) If an error occurs during SnapShot Debugger configuration or while

reading back the sampled information (trace buffer), the SnapShot Log file will contain the relevant error
messages, and the SnapShot Waveform file will not be created/updated.

The Cancel (

) button aborts the SnapShot Arming process. The SnapShot Log file will be updated, but

the SnapShot Waveform file will not be created/updated.

Note:

In rare cases the Bitporter pod may become non-responsive after SnapShot is canceled. If this

happens, power cycling the Bitporter pod (and device-under-test) should resume normal pod operation.

Saving/Loading SnapShot Configurations

Users may wish to re-use an existing known-good SnapShot configuration (the collection of settings in the

SnapShot Debugger view

) at a later date.

SnapShot configurations may be saved to a SnapShot configuration file (with the

.snapshot

file extension)

using the Save SnapShot Configuration (

) button found in the SnapShot Debugger view’s toolbar.

These SnapShot configurations may then be loaded later by using the Load SnapShot Configuration (

)

button, found in the SnapShot Debugger view’s toolbar.

Batch Mode

It is also possible to run SnapShot from ACE batch mode. To do so, use the Tcl command

run snapshot

.

Note that

run snapshot

requires the use of a

previously-saved

SnapShot configuration file (

.snapshot

).

293

http://www.achronix.com

UG001 Rev. 5.0 - 5th December 2012

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