Answers Database

Timsim8/PLD_DVE_BA: "WARNING: Unknown design object" on Autologic design


Record #618

Product Family:  Software

Product Line:  Mentor

Problem Title:
Timsim8/PLD_DVE_BA: "WARNING: Unknown design object" on Autologic design


Problem Description:
On an Autologic-synthesized schematic, PLD_DVE_BA (in Timsim8) may give a
warning similar to:

   # WARNING: Unknown design object: /LA_BOUCHE/I1101S$37$5

The warning may repeat several times for the same design object.

Older versions of Autologic may write out percent signs (%) in their
instance names.  Although this is legal in Mentor schematics, it is NOT
legal in Xilinx netlists.  To remedy this, EDIF2XNF changes each "%" in a
netlist to "$37$" (so used because 37 is the ASCII code for the percent
sign).	Unfortunately, the Mentor back-annotation file is written with this
change, so that I1101S$37$5 in the MBA file does not match up with the true
I1101S%5 in the schematic.


Solution 1:

In the $LCA/com/sparc (or $LCA/com/hppa) directory is a script called
mbapp.nawk.  This NAWK script is run during the Timsim8 flow to rewrite a
Mentor back-annotation file into a more compact form.  Since this script
rewrites the MBA file, it can be used to change MBA netnames as needed.

A modified version of this script is available that will change the $37$'s
back to %'s, so that the offending names in the back-annotation file
correspond to those in the front end.  This script is located on the Xilinx
FTP site at:

   ftp://ftp.xilinx.com/pub/swhelp/mentor/mbapp.tar.Z

A README file is included in the archive.

Have a network administrator replace the old mbapp.nawk file with this one.
Once this is done, rerun Timsim8 and the process should run smoothly.



End of Record #618