GHDL Setup

The Pix2PGP repository ships with a GHDL-based flow under ghdl/ that supports:

• Quick VHDL syntax checking across the entire Pix2PGP codebase (shared RTL + selected ASIC + FPGA receiver)

• Behavioral simulation using GHDL-LLVM

Installation

Install GHDL with the LLVM backend. On Ubuntu-like systems this can be done through the distribution package manager, or by building from source following the instructions at:

https://ghdl.github.io/ghdl/

The default simulator command used in ghdl/Makefile is:

export GHDL_CMD = ghdl-llvm

If your GHDL install uses a different binary name (e.g. ghdl-mcode), either override this variable when invoking make, or edit the Makefile.

Verifying the Install

Once GHDL is installed, verify the flow by running a quick syntax check on one of the supported ASICs:

$ cd pix2pgp/ghdl
$ make build ASIC=SparkPixS

See How to Perform VHDL Syntax Checks with GHDL and How to Simulate Using GHDL for details.

Note

GHDL should be used only for lightweight syntax checks and short-duration behavioral simulations. Full VCS-based (or any proprietary simulator meant for large designs) simulation is the recommended flow for anything beyond that.