Some tips for python HDL test module Cocotb.

Read and Write signal

Write:

clk.value = 1
dut.input_signal <= 12
dut.sub_block.memory.array[4] <= 2

Read:

count = dut.counter.value
print(count.binstr)
print(count.integer)
print(count.n_bits)
print(int(dut.counter))

See it under the official documentation.

Yielding a coroutine in a select list fashion

Question asked on stackoverflow.

Using latest python version with virtualenv

If you compile python yourself, don’t forget to add option --enable-shared at configure time (./configure --enable-shared)

$ virtualenv --python=/usr/local/bin/python3.7 ~/envp37
$ source ~/envp37/bin/activate
$ python -m pip install cocotb

Do not forget to re-source your environnement each time you open a new terminal :

$ source ~/envp37/bin/activate

Logging messages and main test class template

This is a template for declaring a class used for test in function @cocotb.test() :

import logging
from cocotb import SimLog
...

class MyDUTNameTest(object):
    """ Test class for MyDUTName"""
    LOGLEVEL = logging.INFO
    # clock frequency is 50Mhz
    PERIOD = (20, "ns")

    def __init__(self):
        if sys.version_info[0] < 3: # because python 2.7 is obsolete
            raise Exception("Must be using Python 3")
        self._dut = dut
        self.log = SimLog("RmiiDebug.{}".format(self.__class__.__name__))
        self.log.setLevel(self.LOGLEVEL)
        self._dut._log.setLevel(self.LOGLEVEL)
        self.clock = Clock(self._dut.clock, self.PERIOD[0], self.PERIOD[1])
        self._clock_thread = cocotb.fork(self.clock.start())

# ....

@cocotb.test()
def my_test(dut):
    mdutn = MyDUTNameTest()
    mdutn.log.info("Launching my test")