Breakpoint

Operator Menu Location: Diagnostic Operators

Operator Bitmap:

Functional Description:
The Breakpoint operator pauses a Design Pad simulation upon a programmatic trigger event.
Design Pad provides an integrated simulation environment wherein a node configuration--including the hardware definition and associated schema files--may be simulated in near real-time. The toolbar speed-buttons shown below control the simulation execution.

A simulation may be manually started (green traffic light), manually paused (yellow traffic light), and manually stopped (red traffic light). After a simulation run is paused, it may be resumed at full-speed (green traffic light), or it may be commanded to execute a single compute-loop or scan (single-step button).

The Breakpoint operator has a single digital input that is used to trigger a programmatic simulation pause. This enable input may be configured to trigger on the detection of an edge (rising or falling) or on a logic state (LOW or HIGH).

Pausing a simulation programmatically (using the Breakpoint operator) may be very useful to debug a difficult sequencing problem for instance. Once paused, the single-step button can then be used to execute one compute-loop or scan at a time. As always, all operator output values are refreshed on the screen after each compute-loop.

The rightmost speed-button on the toolbar shown above (the hand) is used to enable or disable all Breakpoint operators. When all disabled (hand depressed) a Breakpoint will not pause a simulation even if triggered. Disabling breakpoint operators may be preferable to removing them from the schema altogether (or disconnecting their input pins) when they are temporarily unneeded.

A Breakpoint operator is only useful within the Design Pad environment. It does nothing in the target hardware---in fact it is automatically removed from the node configuration file that is exported to the target hardware.

User-Defined Properties:
Object Name. A string label that identifies the operator

Enable On. The input condition that triggers the breakpoint (simulation pausing action). May be:

Rising Edge (i.e., input switches from LOW to HIGH),

Falling Edge (i.e., input switches from HIGH to LOW), Active LOW or Active HIGH.

Comments: None

See Also: None