Release Notes For ModelSim Intel FPGA 10.

5e

Jun 15 2017
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_______________________________________________________________________

* How to Get Support

ModelSim Intel FPGA is supported by Intel
+ World-Wide-Web Support
[1]http://www.altera.com/mySupport
_______________________________________________________________________

Index to Release Notes

* [2]Key Information
* [3]Release Announcements in 10.5e
* [4]Base Product Specifications in 10.5e
* [5]Compatibility Issues with Release 10.5e
* [6]General Defects Repaired in 10.5e
* [7]User Interface Defects Repaired in 10.5e
* [8]SystemVerilog Defects Repaired in 10.5e
* [9]VHDL Defects Repaired in 10.5e
* [10]SystemC Defects Repaired in 10.5e
* [11]User Interface Enhancements in 10.5e
* [12]SystemVerilog Enhancements in 10.5e
* [13]WLF and VCD logging Enhancements in 10.5e
* [14]Document Revision History in 10.5e
_______________________________________________________________________

Key Information
 * The following lists the supported platforms:
+ win32aloem - Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10
+ linuxaloem - RedHat Enterprise Linux 5 and 6, SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server 10 and 11
_______________________________________________________________________

Release Announcements in 10.5e

* In the next major release (10.6), support for Redhat Enterprise
Linux (RHEL) 5 and Suse Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 10 will be
dropped.
* Release 10.5 uses FLEXnet v11.13.1.2 server, v11.13.0.2 client.
For floating licenses, it will be necessary to verify that the
vendor daemon (i.e., mgcld) and the license server (i.e., lmgrd)
have FLEXnet versions equal to or greater than 11.13.0.2. If the
current FLEXnet version of your vendor daemon and lmgrd are less
than 11.13.0.2 then it will be necessary to stop your license
server and restart it using the vendor daemon and lmgrd contained
in this release.
If you use node locked licenses you don't need to do anything. This
release will update licensing to MSL v2015_1_patch2 with MGLS
v9.13_5.4 and PCLS v9.13.5.2
In summary, this release uses the following license versions:
+ FLEXnet v11.13.1.2 server, v11.13.0.2 client
+ MSL v2015_1_patch2
+ MGLS v9.13_5.4
+ PCLS v9.13.5.2
+ 10.5 release onwards, Questa will be using Microsoft Visual
Studio 12 a.k.a Visual Studio 13. This would mean that all the
executables shipped with the 10.5 release and onwards would be
linked in with "msvcr120.dll". If you have SystemC or
PLI/VPI/DPI/FLI libraries compiled with older release with any
gcc compiler shipped with the product, those will have to be
re-compiled with 10.5. Windows platform compiler details is as
follows:
o "gcc-4.2.1-mingw32vc9" has been replaced with
"gcc-4.2.1-mingw32vc12" and is shipped with the product.
o "gcc-4.5.0-mingw64" has been replaced with
"gcc-4.5.0-mingw64vc12" and is shipped with the product.
o "gcc-4.5.0-mingw32vc9" has been replaced with
"gcc-4.5.0-mingw32vc12" and will be available for
download on a request basis.
Compiler versions have not been changed compared to
previous release. Please refer to User's Manual for more
details.
o (source) In the next major release (10.6)
# support for Windows 8.0 will be dropped. No change
for Windows 8.1
# support for gcc-4.3.3-linux and
gcc-4.3.3-linux_x86_64 will be dropped
o Due to enhanced security restrictions with web browser
PDF plug-ins, some links do not function. Links in HTML
documentation are fully functional.
Clicking a link within a PDF viewed in a web browser may
result in no action, or it may load the title page of the
current PDF manual (instead of the intended target in the
PDF manual). The unresolved link behavior occurs in all
web browsers on Windows and Linux platforms. Because of
this behavior, the navigational experience of PDF manuals
is compromised. PDF is ideal for printing because of its
 page-oriented layout.
Use the HTML manuals to search for topics, navigate
between topics, and click links to examples, videos,
reference material, and other related technical content.
For information about Adobe's discontinued support of
Adobe Reader on Linux platforms and your available
options, refer to Knowledge Article MG596568 on
SupportNet.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the
U.S. and other countries.
o In 10.8 major release, support for windows 7 and windows
8.1 will be dropped.
______________________________________________________________

Base Product Specifications in 10.5e

+
[Supported Platforms]
Linux RHEL 5 x86/x86-64
Linux RHEL 6 x86/x86-64
Linux RHEL 7 x86/x86-64
Linux SLES 10 x86/x86-64
Linux SLES 11 x86/x86-64
Windows 7 x86/x64
Windows 8.1 x86/x64
Windows 10 x86/x64
[Supported GCC Compilers (for SystemC)]
gcc-4.7.4-linux/gcc-4.7.4-linux_x86_64
gcc-4.5.0-linux/gcc-4.5.0-linux_x86_64
gcc-4.3.3-linux/gcc-4.3.3-linux_x86_64
gcc-4.2.1-mingw32vc12
[OVL (shipped with product)]
v2.8.1
[VHDL OSVVM (shipped with product)]
v2014.07
[Licensing]
FLEXnet v11.13.1.2 server, v11.13.0.2 client
MSL v2015_1_patch2
MGLS v9.13_5.4
PCLS v9.13.5.2
___________________________________________________________________

Compatibility Issues with Release 10.5e

Key Information Compatibility

* [nodvtid] - (source) A bug related to Windows DLL symbol export is

fixed in 10.5 and later. A side effect of the fix is that there may
be incompatibility on Windows platforms regarding existing DPI
usage. The required setup change is one of the followings:
1) Use vlog -dpiheader to generate DPI routine prototype
declarations. Include generated DPI header file in the DPI code.
OR
2) If DPI header is not being generated or used, one needs to
manually attach DPI_DLLESPEC in front of all DPI routines.
DPI_DLLESPEC is a standard macro defined inside svdpi.h
The generated DPI header flow is recommended. Failing to do the
above will incur the following warning at elab time
# ** Warning: (vsim-3770) Failed to find user specified function 'foo' in DPI
C/C++ source files.
 and the fatal error at runtime:
# ** Fatal: (vsim-160) test.sv(11): Null foreign function pointer encountered wh
en calling 'foo'

SystemVerilog Compatibility
* dvt97601 - (results) vsim crashed, when multiple specify paths or
multiple timing checks were present on the same line (in specify
block), and "-sdfreport" was specified on vsim command line.
* dvt97533 - (results) Interconnect delay was not correct for all to
X transitions as per 1364-2001 LRM.
* dvt32206 - (results) $nochange timing check did not work properly
in all cases.

VHDL Compatibility
* dvt98805 - (source) In case, case generate, selected signal
assignments, and selected variable assignments statements an error
was not reported if the selector expression was a range. For
example "CASE s'RANGE" would not result in an syntax error. It was
either treated as length of the range or an internal error was
reported from vcom or vopt.

General Compatibility
* dvt97602 - (results) If the file specified with vsim's "-f" switch
was a DOS format file containing line-continuation character(s)
'\', then vsim emitted incorrect "(vsim-3369) Top-level design unit
specified more than once" errors. The error message didn't contain
a module name, but just an empty '' containing a new-line
character.

Release Announcements Compatibility

* [nodvtid] - (source) In the next major release (10.6)
+ support for Windows 8.0 will be dropped. No change for Windows
8.1
+ support for gcc-4.3.3-linux and gcc-4.3.3-linux_x86_64 will be
dropped
_______________________________________________________________________

General Defects Repaired in 10.5e

* dvt97602 - (results) If the file specified with vsim's "-f" switch
was a DOS format file containing line-continuation character(s)
'\', then vsim emitted incorrect "(vsim-3369) Top-level design unit
specified more than once" errors. The error message didn't contain
a module name, but just an empty '' containing a new-line
character.
* dvt99930 - Transaction recording can crash the simulator when a
child transaction ends after it's parent transaction has ended. The
crash has been fix. (Note: this ordering of $transaction calls is
not technically correct; child transactions should be ended before
their parent.)
_______________________________________________________________________

User Interface Defects Repaired in 10.5e

* dvt97421 - The "compare annotate" command returns an error as
undefined, which is incorrect. The "compare" command help suggests
"annotation", which is incorrect. This problem has been solved,
"compare annotate" works, and the help text has been corrected.
* dvt97551 - Control+mouse wheel zooming in the Wave window would
incorrectly also scroll the view vertically. This problem has been
fixed, as well as other minor inconsistencies with mouse wheel
 scrolling.
* dvt83149 - The Wave window analog display will correctly use user
defined fixed radix types when computing and displaying the analog
real or integer values.
* dvt98987 - With the Process window open and in Hierarchy mode, the
context ends up at the wrong process. Consequently, any inspection
of call stack for values is wrong or fails to work at all. This can
happen when one of the active process's parent threads has
terminated. When this is the case, the Process window will now
switch to "Active" mode in order to correctly display the current
selected active process.
* dvt100029 - The "when" command fails to trigger sometimes with some
expressions containing nets, vector nets, and multi-dimensional
nets. This issue has been resolved.
* dvt100318 - The $argv and $argc variables giving access to the
command line arguments is not available in -batch mode. This issue
has been resolved.
_______________________________________________________________________

SystemVerilog Defects Repaired in 10.5e

* dvt97601 - (results) vsim crashed, when multiple specify paths or
multiple timing checks were present on the same line (in specify
block), and "-sdfreport" was specified on vsim command line.
* dvt97533 - (results) Interconnect delay was not correct for all to
X transitions as per 1364-2001 LRM.
* dvt32206 - (results) $nochange timing check did not work properly
in all cases.
_______________________________________________________________________

VHDL Defects Repaired in 10.5e

* dvt97593 - Direct instantiation of an entity with a package
instantiation in one of the generic map associations could cause
incorrect code to be generated by the compiler, possibly leading to
a loading failure message from the simulator.
* dvt98805 - (source) In case, case generate, selected signal
assignments, and selected variable assignments statements an error
was not reported if the selector expression was a range. For
example "CASE s'RANGE" would not result in an syntax error. It was
either treated as length of the range or an internal error was
reported from vcom or vopt.
* dvt99166 - Writing a STRING to the FILE STD.TEXTIO.OUTPUT (which is
stdout) using the function STD.TEXTIO.WRITE[TEXT,STRING] could
result in a crash if the string contained two terminating LF (0x0a)
characters.
* dvt99443 - Record aggregate with OTHERS could result in a vcom or
vopt crash if the expression was not of the same subtype as the
record element(s) being associated.
_______________________________________________________________________

SystemC Defects Repaired in 10.5e

* dvt99466 - While trying to print the vsim-6577 error, for a
sc_module, sc_port or a sc_prim_channel global or static SystemC
object that is being destroyed at exit time, vsim might crash in
some odd scenarios. This issue is now fixed. vsim will report a
vsim-6522 warning instead and exit gracefully.
_______________________________________________________________________

User Interface Enhancements in 10.5e

* dvt99074 - A preference setting has been added to disable export of
 the Primary selection from the Structure and Objects windows. The
preference variable is PrefMain(exportTreeSelection). An "on"
(default) value makes the selected item available as the Primary
selection and can be pasted into other windows and applications. An
"off" will disable the export. Explicit copy operations will
continue to be supported in both modes.
_______________________________________________________________________

SystemVerilog Enhancements in 10.5e

* [nodvtid] - Vlog can optionally ignore commas, ",", and right
parens, ")", when found within a `" `" string that forms a list of
macro argument actuals within another macro expansion. The
-svext=+mtdl switch enables this behavior.
_______________________________________________________________________

WLF and VCD logging Enhancements in 10.5e

* dvt94883 - In post-sim mode (vsim -view), The 'Cover Directives'
window is now populated.
_______________________________________________________________________

Document Revision History in 10.5e

* Revision - Changes - Status/Date
+ 1.1 - Modifications to improve the readability and
comprehension of the content. Approved by Tim Peeke. All
technical enhancements, changes, and fixes are listed in this
document for all products in this release. Approved by Bryan
Ramirez. - Released/June 2017
* Author: In-house procedures and working practices require multiple
authors for documents. All associated authors for each topic within
this document are tracked within the document source.
* Revision History: Released documents maintain a revision history of
up to four revisions. For earlier revision history, refer to
earlier releases of documentation which are available on Support
Center (http://support.mentor.com).