Release Notes For ModelSim Altera 10.4e

Apr 08 2016

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How to Get Support
ModelSim Altera is supported by Altera Corporation
- World-Wide-Web Support
  http://www.altera.com/mySupport

Key Information

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

Release Announcements in 10.4e

[nodvtid] -
[10.4] Support for Windows XP and Windows Vista has been discontinued.
[10.4] Licensing Information
There is no licensing change between release 10.3 and 10.4.
However if you are migrating to 10.4 from a release like 10.2 and older, please note the following:
- Starting 10.3, it uses FLEXnet v11.11.1.1. The vendor daemons and lmgrd that are shipped with this release will be FLEXnet version 11.11.1.1.
- 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 11.11.1.1. If the current FLEXnet version of your vendor daemon and lmgrd are less than 11.11.1.1 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.
[10.3b] OVL is upgraded to v2.8.1.
[10.3b] The VHDL OSVVM (Open Source VHDL Verification Methodology) library, sources and documentation have been updated to version 2014.01. Dependency checks in vopt and vsim will force recompilation of designs that use the osvvm library. If optimization is performed using vopt, the optimizer will automatically generate new optimized design units. Without the optimization step, vsim will detect dependency errors.
[10.3] Support for RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 4.0 has been discontinued.
[10.2] Support for Solaris SPARC and Solaris x86 has been discontinued. All Solaris OS platforms are not supported.
[10.2] Support for RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 3.0 and Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLES) 9 has been discontinued.
[10.1] Support for GCC versions gcc-4.1.2-sunos510/gcc-4.1.2-sunos510x86 has been discontinued.
[10.0] Support for Solaris 8 and Solaris 9 has been discontinued.

Base Product Specifications in 10.4e

[nodvtid] -
[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 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-mingw32vc9

[OVL (shipped with product)]
v2.8.1

[VHDL OSVVM (shipped with product)]
v2014.07

[Licensing]
FLEXnet v11.11.1.1
MSL v2013_3
MGLS v9.10_7.2
PCLS v9.10.7.2

Compatibility Issues with Release 10.4e

SystemVerilog Compatibility

dvt73179 - (results) Fix an improper vopt optimization when DPI import call is involved in an always block.
dvt84015 - (results) The non-standard feature of System Verilog "force" and "release" statements that target a select of a variable (as opposed to a net) do not fully support a non-constant rhs. A warning is issued to this effect, and the resulting behavior may not match the expected behavior for force and release semantics involving a non-constant rhs. The behavior has been changed in this release such that the rhs is evaluated just once at the time the force is executed and is applied as though it is constant and does not update forced value subsequently when any of the rhs variables change value. Previously, the forced value would be updated when the rhs variables change value, but any subsequent force or release on the same target would not cancel the force. This old behavior can be selected by specifying the vsim -reevalvarbitforces option.
dvt84871 - (results) vsim crashed when annotating SDF to a full specify path ( "*>") with path selects on source and destination terminals. This happened only when the specify block contained more than 64 paths and the width of the source and destination part-selects were different. E.g. (a[17:9] *> y[36:18]) = (0);
dvt83391 - (results) In some situations, a performance optimization for FSDB dumping caused pli errors: # ** Error: (vsim-PLI-3532) acc_vcl_add(): The object_handle parameter is not a handle to a register, net, variable, port, terminal, or event. # ** Error: (vsim-PLI-3494) acc_fetch_size(): The object_handle parameter is not a handle to a net, register, or port, or a bit-select thereof. setting the env variable MTI_OPT_FSDB=0 will also workaround this problem.
dvt66421 - (results) When vsim was run with any "-radix" other than "binary", UVM backdoor functions uvm_hdl_deposit and uvm_hdl_force didn't deposit/force the correct value into VHDL data objects.

SystemC Compatibility

[nodvtid] - (results) sccom would invoke scparse with the '--c++0x' option by default, which would enable the c++11 standard. The enabling of the c++11 standard by default would lead to scparse compilation errors in certain cases, while the g++ compilation would run fine. sccom has been fixed not to pass '--c++0x' by default. If a design has c++11 constructs, sccom needs to be invoked with the '-std=c++11' option so that both, g++ and scparse will run with the c++11 standard enabled during compilation.

General Defects Repaired in 10.4e

dvt84629 - [ModelSim Microsemi] Wrong license feature name 'actelmsimvlog' mentioned in licensing error message for expired licenses. Should have been 'microsemimsim'.

User Interface Defects Repaired in 10.4e

dvt83573 - The Wave window view will jump to the end time when selecting items in the Structure window. This issue as been fixed. To work around the problem in existing releases, set PrefWave(ScrollOnRunComplete) 0, however, with this option disabled, the Wave window will not scroll to the end after a run either.
dvt74842 - When saving a window image on Windows, the error "expected integer but got "-x"" is reported. This problem has been fixed.
dvt86473 - Objects window will mis-sort items when the Active time is inactive.

SystemVerilog Defects Repaired in 10.4e

dvt73179 - (results) Fix an improper vopt optimization when DPI import call is involved in an always block.
dvt84015 - (results) The non-standard feature of System Verilog "force" and "release" statements that target a select of a variable (as opposed to a net) do not fully support a non-constant rhs. A warning is issued to this effect, and the resulting behavior may not match the expected behavior for force and release semantics involving a non-constant rhs. The behavior has been changed in this release such that the rhs is evaluated just once at the time the force is executed and is applied as though it is constant and does not update forced value subsequently when any of the rhs variables change value. Previously, the forced value would be updated when the rhs variables change value, but any subsequent force or release on the same target would not cancel the force. This old behavior can be selected by specifying the vsim -reevalvarbitforces option.
dvt84871 - (results) vsim crashed when annotating SDF to a full specify path ( "*>") with path selects on source and destination terminals. This happened only when the specify block contained more than 64 paths and the width of the source and destination part-selects were different. E.g. (a[17:9] *> y[36:18]) = (0);
[nodvtid] - Extended Mac OS new-line warning message to cover line comments when the line comments is the first text found within a source file.
dvt84189 - Inline randomization constraints with type casts would sometimes generate compilation errors like:
```
** Error: test.sv(10): Illegal field 'my_type'
```
dvt83391 - (results) In some situations, a performance optimization for FSDB dumping caused pli errors: # ** Error: (vsim-PLI-3532) acc_vcl_add(): The object_handle parameter is not a handle to a register, net, variable, port, terminal, or event. # ** Error: (vsim-PLI-3494) acc_fetch_size(): The object_handle parameter is not a handle to a net, register, or port, or a bit-select thereof. setting the env variable MTI_OPT_FSDB=0 will also workaround this problem.
dvt85773 - vsim crashed with "+bitblast" when a module contained a wide port in $setuphold (or $recrem) but not corresponding delayed nets. For example, "$setuphold(posedge CLK, posedge A, 0,0,notify);" where A is a wide port. In comparison, "$setuphold(posedge CLK, posedge A, 0,0,notify,,, dCLK, dA);", which has the delayed nets specified, did not crash.
dvt66421 - (results) When vsim was run with any "-radix" other than "binary", UVM backdoor functions uvm_hdl_deposit and uvm_hdl_force didn't deposit/force the correct value into VHDL data objects.

VHDL Defects Repaired in 10.4e

dvt82810 - A function containing a nested function called to initialize a subtype of an object declared in the outer function could cause the design to crash when loaded.
dvt83738 - Incorrect code was generated for constant-index signal assignments when the array elements are generic types. As a result, the simulator could crash.
dvt81426 - If an array-valued signal has only constant-index signal assignments in a particular process, and the process contains an expression involving either the 'driving or 'driving_value attribute, incorrect code was generated for the attribute expression. As a result, the simulator could crash during evaluation of the expression.
dvt85740 - The compiler (vcom) would issue an Internal error message when an array aggregate expression was associated with a port of a direct instantiation (ENTITY) when that port was of an array-of-unconstrained array type and the port subtype was fully constrained at the inner array and the constraint depended on generics of the ENTITY, different from the ENTITY of the design unit that contains the direct instantiation statement.
dvt86029 - The simulator would crash when a port map associated an array subelement of a record type signal with an array type port, when the array subelement was defined as an unconstrained array (i.e, the record type was record-with-unconstrained array subelement).

SystemC Defects Repaired in 10.4e

[nodvtid] - (results) sccom would invoke scparse with the '--c++0x' option by default, which would enable the c++11 standard. The enabling of the c++11 standard by default would lead to scparse compilation errors in certain cases, while the g++ compilation would run fine. sccom has been fixed not to pass '--c++0x' by default. If a design has c++11 constructs, sccom needs to be invoked with the '-std=c++11' option so that both, g++ and scparse will run with the c++11 standard enabled during compilation.

User Interface Enhancements in 10.4e

dvt21036 - The Search bar options such as Exact Match and Case Sensitive, have been made persistent between sessions.

SystemVerilog Enhancements in 10.4e

[nodvtid] - Added a vlog and vopt -svext=tzas option that runs a top-blocking always @* at time zero, same as is done for an always_comb, meaning that the always block will behave as though triggered at time zero even if none of the variables and nets in the implied sensitivity change value at time zero.
[nodvtid] - vlog's -E output would not emit `line directives with anything other than '0' for the "level" parameter. Valid values for the "level" parameter are 0, 1 or 2.