Visual Debug

Debug faster, or showcase your existing IP (in any HDL) with Visual Debug.

Debug

Waveform viewers have been our go-to debug tool for decades. Seriously?!?! It's like looking for a needle in a haystack. We've got a better way that puts you in control!

What's happening in this simulation?? Who knows?

With Visual Debug, there's no question!

Visual Debug empowers you to visualize simulations the way you want to see them. Abstraction is the key to productivity and debug is no exception. Start high level, and dig into waveforms only when necessary.

Living Documentation

The same visualizations you create to speed up your own debugging are useful to your team and your consumers as well. Your team will rely less on static documentation and more on living visualizations. Unlike documentation that can grow stale, Visual Debug is known to reflect the HDL model.

Showcasing IP

Your IP is only attractive to a consumer or customer if they can understand what it does. You can show them using Visual Debug. They will be left with no doubt about its behavior.

You can deliver this visualization with your HDL, and your customers can incorporate it into their own visualization of their overall system. They may even feel your IP is incomplete without it.

How it Works

You write simple JavaScript functions to represent simulation state by positioning and coloring shapes and text on a canvas based on the values of key signals. Or provide positioning and scaling attributes when using IP with visualization. (Even if you don't know JavaScript, you can easily code by example.) You can represent the state however you like and see it change as you step through the simulation. You can represent a snapshot of machine state or a window of time or both. Anything you might draw in a document is a great place to start, and you can bring it to life.

More Information

You can explore Visual Debug examples and documentation within our Makerchip platform.