verilator (was: Searching for a plugin)

Hi there.

(cc to gnucap-devel, which is a better place for this topic).

On Sat, Oct 04, 2014 at 10:06:32AM -0500, wikitronic wrote:
> I need a plugin that I can use to interface Verilator compiled code to
> Gnucap. The plugin would output some set of values and then wait for input
> from the external program, then continue. This way I can use one plugin for
> many external programs.

i understand that you would like to have a plugin that implements a
component that will fork and run a program to which it then talks to
using stdin/out. this might sound promising. but it's a dead-end. the
communication between a component and the simulator is more involved,
and you don't want to force it through a pipe.

> If nothing like this exists I would be willing to
> look look at developing it myself. I just need some helpful advice.

what you want to do is compile/link the verilator output against an
interface to gnucap (instead of a main() program). something very
similar already exists for spice components. spice-wrapper.cc implements
the interface which is then linked to spice object code. in your case,
the wrapper will have to take care of the signal conversion and/or
instanciate appropriate connectors, some work on the verilator side
might be neccessary...

> I'm have not studied the projects to understand them very well. This is one
> of my usual crazy ideas.

great idea. perhaps verilator makes this possible, eventually. your
questions are welcome!

cheers
felix