Interoperability of Project tasks between Riviera-PRO and ALINT

Introduction

The tasks window in Riviera-PRO and ALINT can be used to manage tasks that need to be completed in the design. Tasks can be anything that you would like to do later in your project. In a team based environment where multiple engineers are working with different aspects of the same design, it is difficult to coordinate tasks among different engineers. This becomes even more difficult when a team is working on one tool to create the design, and a team lead is using another tool to do the code review and design rule checking. The team lead would have to convey the changes of the code to the team members by either placing comments in the code or manually mentioning the area of the code to fix. In larger designs it becomes increasingly difficult to find the comments and fix the issue.

This application note focuses on how to manage tasks between Riviera-PRO and ALINT. If you would like to learn more about how tasks work, please refer to this application note: http://www.aldec.com/en/support/resources/documentation/articles/1517

Defining tasks in ALINT

In a typical team environment, engineers would be primarily using Riviera-PRO as their design entry and simulation tool. After the design reaches a stage where a code review/design rule check is required, a team lead or the person performing the code review can open in ALINT the same workspace file that is used in Riviera-PRO.

Once you are in ALINT, you can perform linting operations on the design. After the linting operations are complete, you can open the violation viewer to look at the violations. While reviewing the violations, you can fix them on the spot, you could fix it later, or have someone else in the team fix it by creating new tasks.

To create a new task:

1. Right-click on the violation and use the Add Task option to quickly add a new task pertaining to that violation.

   

   Figure 1 Add new task to a violation

2. When you click on the Add Task option, a pop-up window opens.

   

   Figure 2 Adding Task

   • In the pop-up window you select what kind of task you would like to create.

     • The Add-to option lets you either set the task within a source file using tags, or create a global task in the tasks window.

     • The Tag option lets you set the type of the tag that you want to associate with the task.

   • You can also have a description relating to the task. You can use team member names to specify to whom the task is targeting toward.

3. Once you create a task, it will be shown in the tasks window.

   

   Figure 3 Tasks window

Other ways to add a task:

1. Double-click the violation to open the underlying HDL file. You can manually use the task tags to add a new task.

2. Or you can open the tasks window from View | Tasks and then add a global task.

All of the tasks created can be viewed inside the Tasks window of ALINT or Riviera-PRO.

Viewing Tasks in Riviera-PRO

Now that you have created tasks using ALINT, you or your team can now open the same workspace file in Riviera-PRO and in the tasks window you will be able to see all the tasks created in ALINT. If you used team member names while creating tasks, each team member can concentrate on the tasks assigned to them and address them accordingly. (Refer to Figure 3)