---
categories:
  - Computer Architecture
  - Hardware
tags: [nand-to-tetris]
---

# Hardware simulation

In order to test our
[HDL](Hardware_Description_Language.md) files we load
them into the hardware simulator program. We will demonstrate this with the
following XOR implementation:

![](/img/xor-addition-four.png)

There are several simulation options:

- interactive
- script-based (where we load a test script into the simulator along with the
  HDL file
- comparative (running the HDL program against our intended output specified in
  the `.cmp` file)

The use-cases for each mode are based on the complexity of the chip you are
evaluating. For a small chip, interactive and script-based testing would be
sufficient but for much larger components like an ALU a comparative approach
would be more manageable and efficient.

## Interactive

The image below shows a basic interactive usage of the simulator. We have
uploaded the `Xor.hdl` file into the simulator and changed the input pins to
`a=1, b=0` and clicked the calculator icon (representing "evaluation"). This
then shows the output and internal pin values for these inputs.

<img src="/home/thomas/repos/computer_science/img/hardware-sim-basic.png" >

## Script-based

This time we have clicked the script icon to load `Xor.tst`. This loads the test
script into the main GUI panel on the left. We can step through each line of the
test file and we will see the pin values update in accordance with the test.

When this is run it automatically generates an output file in the source
directory at `Xor.out`. This can be viewed within the simulator via the 'View'
drop down.

![](/img/hd-sim-test.png)

## Comparison-based

With a comparison-based approach to chip testing we run a comparison against the
`.out` file that the simulator generates when running the HDL program against a
`.cmp` comparison file that we provide. Both are simply truth-tables. For XOR if
the program matched the comparison specification both `Xor.out` and `Xor.cmp`
would look like the following:

```
a | b | out
-----------
0 | 0 | 0
0 | 1 | 1
1 | 0 | 1
1 | 1 | 0
```

You don't have to do anything to apply the comparison since the compare file
will already be loaded as part of the test file's set up:

```vhdl
load Xor.hdl
output file Xor.out
compare-to Xor.cmp
output-list a, b, out;
set ...
```