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Installing ModelSim

Fares Elsabbagh January 14, 2019

Table of Contents 1 DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL VIRTUALBOX (MAC USERS ONLY) [5 MINUTES] ...................................................2

2 DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL WINDOWS 10 (MAC USERS ONLY) [0.5-1 HOUR] .................................................4

3 INSTALLING MODELSIM [5 MINUTES] ......................................................................................................... 11

4 ACCESSING MODELSIM IN THE LABS [5-10 MINUTES] ................................................................................. 13

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The first two sections are for Mac users. They describe how you can download and install a virtual machine to run Windows, and the installation of Windows. Note that there are other virtual machines you could use such as Parallels. While you have to buy Parallels it may be faster. The following is just one helpful option. Section 3 describes the process for downloading and installing the student version of ModelSim. Finally, Section 4 describes how you can access the ModelSim installation in the laboratories as an alternative to installing it on your own machine.

Note there are other alternatives for ModelSim installation that you are free to use. The following is one approach.

1 Download and Install VirtualBox (MAC users only) [5 minutes] a. Download VirtualBox VM

i. Link: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads ii. Click on “OS X hosts”

b. Open the file downloaded

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c. You will then be greeted with this. Double click on “VirtuabBox.pkg”

d. Go through the installation process. This should take roughly 1-2 minutes.

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2 Download and Install Windows 10 (MAC users only) [0.5-1 hour] a. To download Windows 10

i. Link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO

b. After the file has been downloaded, open VirtualBox that was installed in step 1

c. Click on the New button d. Fill the entries as follows then click continue

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e. Allocate the amount of RAM to be used by the virtual machine. This could be easily changed later if you allocate too much or too little.

f. Select “Create a virtual hard disk now” then click on “Create”

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g. Select “VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image) then click on “Continue”

h. Select “Dynamically Allocated” then click on “Continue”

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i. Choose an appropriate size for the disk then click on “Create”. For the purposes of this class, 10GB is sufficient.

j. You should now see this:

k. Click on “Settings” then click on “Storage”

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l. Right click on Controller then click on Add Optical Drive

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m. Browse to the Windows 10 .iso file you downloaded in step 2a and choose it. Then click on “Ok”.

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n. Click on “Start” i. Note: If the screen is small, you could fix this issue by installing VirtualBox guest

additions after Windows 10 has been installed: https://www.smarthomebeginner.com/install-virtualbox-guest-additions-on-windows/

o. When going through the installation process, click on “I don’t have a product key” when asked to activate windows.

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3 Installing ModelSim [5 minutes] a. Create a student account on Mentor website

i. Link: https://www.mentor.com/company/higher_ed/modelsim-student-edition b. After creating an account, you should receive an email with a download link:

c. Run the downloaded .exe as an administrator. i. Note: If an error pops up, restart your computer and try again.

d. After installation, a form will open on your browser. Please fill it out to receive the student license.

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e. You will then receive an email with instructions on how to enable the student license

f. After copying “student_license.dat” file to the top-level directory of ModelSim, try starting ModelSim.

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4 Accessing ModelSim in the Labs [5-10 minutes] This is a quick introduction on how to SSH into the ECE Linux Server to use ModelSim.

a. Download Anywhere Connect to VPN - Instructions below: i. MAC: https://faq.oit.gatech.edu/content/how-do-i-install-cisco-anyconnect-client-

os-x ii. Windows: https://faq.oit.gatech.edu/content/how-do-i-install-cisco-anyconnect-

client-windows-7-and-8 b. Download SSH client

i. MAC: XQuartz i) Link: https://www.xquartz.org/

ii) Left click the XQuartz icon → Applications → Terminal iii) In the xterm, type: ssh -Y <gt-account>@ecelinsrvy.ece.gatech.edu and

press enter ii. Windows: PuTTY or MobaXterm

i) Link: https://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/ ii) Session - SSH

(1) Remote host: <gt-account>@ecelinsrvy.ece.gatech.edu c. To start ModelSim, type the following in the terminal

i. source /tools/mentor/modelsim/ms106a/cshrc.modelsim ii. vsim &

d. The ModelSim GUI should appear