9 Migration Guide Simics 5 to Simics 6

SystemC Library has been upgraded between Simics 5 and Simics 6 to support new features and make the product more robust and future proof. See the release notes for a list of all new features.

Most changes are internal and do not affect the end-user. In addition the deprecated API has been kept, whenever possible, to maintain backwards compatibility.

One major change that affects the end-user is how the SystemC scheduler is integrated with Simics. In Simics 5 the SystemC time was forwarded by events posted on an external clock, therefore creating and connecting this clock was a required step. In Simics 6 the adapter is directly scheduled by Simics and so no external clock is required. This affects the configuration, and some migration is required as described below.

Here is the list of things one has to do when migrating from 5 to 6:

• Adapter always creates an internal clock, so any explicitly created external clocks in components or test benches should be removed.
• For the same reason, the adapter's queue attribute must not be set explicitly by components or test benches. If set, it will result in an error with the following message: "VT_set_object_clock() called twice for the object <object name>. The function may only be called once for each configuration object.".
• In a configuration with other clocks, aside from the one now provided by the adapter, extra care must be taken to make sure the adapter ends up in the correct cell. Please run check-cell-partitioning to validate the configuration.
• Test-benches that run Simics for a specified amount of cycles based on the frequency of the external clock, must be updated to run the corresponding time in picoseconds instead.
• Custom gaskets must be updated: CatchUp class has been removed, and must be removed from the gasket to avoid compilation error.
• Custom adapters calling SimulationInterface directly must be updated to avoid compilation error.
• All conf-classes provided by SystemC Library and Tools now use underscore instead of deprecated hyphens. Updates may be required depending on use-case.
• time_quantum attribute removed from Adapter. Updates may be required depending on use-case.
• SystemC tools have moved inside SystemC Library and are built as part of the Simics module, with tool classes prefixed with the module's name. This in order to improve isolation between different Simics modules to avoid problems with incompatible C++ ABIs. Updates may be required depending on use-case.
• The default tools created by the [trace,break]-sc commands have been moved into the internal namespace of the adapter. Please don't use this tool directly.
• The systemc2simics::Signal gasket can no longer be bound directly to the SystemC sc_out via operator overloading. Instead, calling the set_pin method is required. This makes the Signal gasket consistent with the other gaskets.

Please also consider the following optional changes:

• Remove calls to ExtensionSender::set_payload() if not required. This is only required when the payload is modified before calling methods of the interface-specific Extension class
• Remove calls to Extension::init(sender, payload) with calls to Extension::init(sender).
• In simics2tlm gaskets, replace calls to Gasket::payload() with TransactionPool::acquire() and calls to Gasket::trigger_transaction() with Gasket::trigger(Transaction*). This will make the gasket re-entry safe. See any of the standard gaskets for reference.
• In simics2tlm gaskets, replace calls to Gasket::set_inquiry(bool) with TransactionExtension::set_transport_debug(bool). See IoMemory gasket for reference.
• Remember to change SIMICS_API from 5 to 6 in the module's Makefile.