Building and running

The C++ Kathryn builds with CMake into a single executable, Kathryn. You run it by handing it one argument — the path to a parameter file — and the front end decides what to do from a key inside that file. This page covers the build, the testType values you can use, and where output lands.

Build with CMake

From the repository root, the Readme.md build recipe is:

mkdir build && cd build
cmake -DBUILD_RIDECORE=OFF ..
make -j

CMakeLists.txt declares the project as C++17 and globs the source tree into a single Kathryn executable target — main.cpp, src/kathryn.cpp, and every .cpp under src/abstract, src/application, src/frontEnd, src/model, src/sim, src/gen, src/test, src/util, src/example, src/params, and src/lib:

add_executable(Kathryn
        main.cpp
        src/kathryn.cpp
        ${SRC_ABS} ${SRC_APP} ${SRC_FED} ${SRC_MODEL}
        ${SRC_SIM} ${SRC_GEN} ${SRC_TEST} ${SRC_UTIL}
        ${SRC_EXAMPLE} ${SRC_PARAM} ${SRC_LIB}
        ${SRC_MODEL_COMPILE}
        ${SRC_RIDE_SIM}
)

The build also injects KATHRYN_PROJ_FOLD_PATH (the source directory) as a compile definition, so the tool can locate project-relative paths at runtime.

Note

CMakeLists.txt keeps several optimization lines commented out (for example add_compile_options(-O3) and CMAKE_INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION). The default build is therefore an unoptimized build; enable those in CMakeLists.txt yourself if you want a faster tool.

Run: one executable, one parameter file

main.cpp is deliberately small. It reads the parameter file named by the first command-line argument, then calls start(params):

int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
    if (argc < 2){
        std::cout << "there is no argument value" << std::endl;
    }
    auto params = readParamKathryn(argv[1]);
    /***** model and simulation start here*/
    start(params);
}

So a run looks like:

./Kathryn ../params/smParams

See Parameters for the full parameter-file format; every path key expects a trailing /, per the sample files.

Which testType values you can use

The parameter file’s testType key selects the built-in scenario. These are the accepted values:

testType	What it runs
testSimple	The auto-simulation suite (what the smParams sample uses)
testO3Sim	The out-of-order (O3) example simulation
testKrideSim	The Kride CPU simulation
testRideSim	The reference RIDECORE simulation — needs BUILD_RIDECORE=ON
testKrideRideCombSim	The Kride-versus-RIDECORE co-simulation — needs BUILD_RIDECORE=ON
testGen	Verilog generation for the built-in generation example
testGenO3	Verilog generation for the O3 design

Any other value prints there is no command to test system and exits.

flowchart LR
    P["Parameter file<br/>testType = ..."] --> K["./Kathryn"]
    K --> SIM["Simulation run<br/>.vcd + .prof"]
    K --> GEN["Generation run<br/>.v"]

Simulation scenarios write a .vcd waveform and a .prof ZEP profiler report; generation scenarios write a .v Verilog file. In the shipped params files everything lands under the repository’s KOut/ directory. These are the keys that control those output files:

Key	Scenario	Effect
prefix	simulation	Output directory the run writes its .vcd/.prof results into
vcdFile / profFile	simulation	Explicit destination paths for the waveform and profiler report
buildSimMode	simulation	Which simulator JIT stages run — g/c/r = generate / compile / run
genFolder	generation	Output folder for the generated Verilog
topFileName	generation	Base name of the emitted top .v file
topModName	generation	Verilog module name of the top module

VCD and profiler recording are compile-time switches

The keys above only choose the output paths. What the simulator actually records is fixed at compile time in src/params/simParam.cpp:

• PARAM_VCD_REC_POL selects which signals are recorded into the VCD — MDE_REC_ONLY_USER, MDE_REC_ONLY_INTERNAL, MDE_REC_BOTH, or MDE_REC_SKIP.
• PARAM_PERF_REC_POL gates ZEP profiler collection — MFP_ON or MFP_OFF.

As shipped, they default to MDE_REC_SKIP and MFP_OFF — VCD signal recording and profiler collection are off. Edit simParam.cpp and rebuild to get real waveform and profiler content.

See Parameters for the full key reference and the catalog of shipped params files.

The two RIDECORE scenarios only work when the tool was built with cmake -DBUILD_RIDECORE=ON (requires Verilator and the populated extSim/ridecore submodule); otherwise they print RIDE simulation is not enabled. Please build with BUILD_RIDECORE=ON.

Where next

• Quickstart: the blink sample — the smallest complete design plus simulation, walked through line by line.
• Parameters — the full parameter-file format and every key the front end reads.