Version 2.3 (Changes from Version 2.2)

  • Vastly improved simulation performance. You may see as much as 50% improvement in performance especially for designs being simulated in the graphical environment.
  • There have been some problems reported on certain Linux environments with the stability of the GUI. Special attention has been paid to this issue in this release and portions of the interface internals have been redesigned to alleviate these issues. Of course, if you are still having issues (regardless of the platform), please contact us.
  • Upgraded the Altera library scripts to recognize the change Altera made to their VHDL libraries in Quartus 3.0. Earlier, the scripts only recognized pre Quartus 3.0 directory structure and hence did not compile the Altera megafunctions. The new scripts now work with both pre and post Quartus 3.0 versions.
  • A few minor bug fixes.

Version 2.2 (Changes from Version 2.1)

  • You can now refresh libraries without having to re-compile the VHDL source files if they are out of date with reference to other libraries. You can use this feature to 'refresh' you libraries that were compiled against an older version/build of the compiler for instance.
  • Simplified license management for node-locked users. You no longer have to run the FLEXlm license manager unless you are using floating licenses. License files issued for version 2.1 are fully compatible and do not require any action from the user (other than copying the 2.1 license file into the 2.2 installation directory).
  • A few minor bug fixes.

Version 2.1 (Changes from Version 2.0)

  • Improved performance for very large designs -- memory consumption reduced by as much as 30% for designs with millions of signals.
  • A re-designed Waveform viewer with hundreds of enhancements is introduced. Apart from the enhancements, it addresses some scrolling problem seen mainly on Linux. The following are just some of the enhancements
    • More format conversions (unsigned and decimal are now supported)
    • Analog waveforms
    • Search for waveform values, transitions, etc.
    • Drag and drop to move signals
    • Waveform separators
    • Waveforms for VHDL Variables
    • Right/Left justify waveform values
    • Control waveform height, color, display name individually
    • User-definable waveform bookmarks (Views and markers)
    • Scroll left/right with arrow keys
    • Find signal by name
    • More control over general waveform preferences.
    • Create a command file from the waveform window
  • Professional Edition: This version introduces advanced debugging features and code coverage.
    • Set breakpoints -- has multiple options
    • Stop and continue from VHDL ASSERT/REPORT statements
    • Efficient code-coverage (less than 5% performance penalty)
    • Code coverage with user defined exceptions
    • Code coverage analysis presented in three forms (1) presented graphically in Sonata with text editor annotations for easier tracking to source code, (2) presented as a text file for easier post-processing and (2) presented as an HTML file for better presentation
  • VHDL to HTML conversion
  • More control over general purpose fonts used in Sonata
  • ASSERT statements linked to waveform window (double click on ASSERT output in console)
  • Fixed problem described in Technical Note #3. VHDL Simili now handles the universal integers/reals as specified in the VHDL'93 specification.
  • Support for Altera Quartus II libraries and newer LPM libraries
  • Important Note: Version 2.1 has upgraded its license mechanism. As a consequence, you will not be able to use older license file(s) with this version. However, if you have purchased a license for version 2.0, you can simply download a new license file using the Licensing Wizard using your original order-code. While it is possible to run both versions of the software, we do not recommend this unless you make the appropriate modifications to the license files to allow two different versions of the license managers running (normally done by using separate TCP-IP ports). To avoid confusion, please disable the license manager not in use and only enable the license manager that is appropriate for the release. 

Version 2.0 (Changes from Version 1.5)

  • Version 2.0 adds the GUI front end "Sonata" to the compiler and simulator. It is a full featured Integrated Development Environment capable of managing very large designs.
  • Sonata also supports interactive waveforms display. It can handle millions of waveform transitions while being very compact in memory and on disk.
  • Simili now supports port/generic maps in configurations.
  • A few minor bug fixes have been made in the compiler (vhdlp).

Version 1.5 (Changes from Version 1.4)

  • Major performance improvements have been made with respect to very large designs utilizing Vital/SDF. These performance improvements have been made mainly due to an order of magnitude less memory utilization by the simulator. While small design may see little or no benefit, very large designs will see overnight runs drop to mere minutes.
  • Binary file IO is now more robust. Although version 1.4 was also correct in what it did, it was not compatible with other simulators (since the VHDL specification did not specify this aspect).
  • Fixed the problem described in Technical Note #2.
  • Bugfixes:
  1. VitalSetupHoldCheck acceleration fixed. vhdle crashed when the std_logic_vector form of this routine used. The std_logic version did not have this problem.
  2. When a FILE object was declared in an architecture and when this architecture was instantiated multiple times, this did not work properly in version 1.4

Version 1.4 (Changes from Version 1.3)

  • Major performance improvements have been made with respect to VITAL models. VITAL models can expect a 10x performance improvement compared to the previous version.
  • You can now disable acceleration of various packages at runtime (instead of during compilation).
  • Performance improvements have been made for multiple SDF annotations where the same SDF data needs to be applied to multiple VITAL model instances (possibly with different operating conditions).

Version 1.3 (Changes from Version 1.2)

  • Accelerated versions of Synopsys packages (std_logic_arith, std_logic_signed and std_logic_unsigned).
  • Support for SDF back-annotation added.
  • Several performance improvements resulting in up to 50% better performance compared to Version 1.1.
  • Support for signal class attributes (TRANSACTION, STABLE, QUIET, DELAYED). These implicit signals can now be used in all legal places (including sensitivity lists).
  • Options to redirect the TEXTIO input/output files to external disk files.
  • You can now use extended identifiers for architecture, entity or package names. However, extended identifiers for library names sill do not work. The work around is to use the extended identifier only as a logical name but map this logical name to a library on disk that is operating system legal in the Symphony.ini file.
  • The simulator now prints progress information ( -p option ). Note: Using this options can slow the simulator down just a little bit.

Version 1.2 (Changes from Version 1.1)

  • Accelerated versions of TEXTIO and std_logic_1164 packages.
  • Support for attributes INSTANCE_NAME and PATH_NAME
  • Support for simple forms of CONFIGURATION blocks added.
  • The compiler and simulator can now operate in silent mode (-s option).
  • Numerous bug fixes

Version 1.0 (Changes from Version 1.0)

  • Several bug fixes were made in the area of hierarchy.
  • Support for attributes INSTANCE_NAME and PATH_NAME