Presented by Brian Griffin On behalf of Manu Goel Mohit Goel Nov 12 th, 2014 Building a dynamic GUI, configurable at runtime by backend tool

Presented by Brian Griffin

On behalf of

Manu Goel

Mohit Goel

Nov 12th, 2014

Building a dynamic GUI, configurable at runtime by backend tool

© 2010 Mentor Graphics Corp. Company Confidentialwww.mentor.com

Mentor

Graphics Company Confidential

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Agenda

Introduction Advantages Case Study Conclusion


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Introduction

What is a dynamic GUIDynamic GUI is a GUI which can change during the course of execution

What is a dynamic GUI configurable by backendIn this case, there is a backend process, which is controlling and configuring the GUI at the run time based on user’s input

A Dynamic GUI can help in cases where— A Lot of information is to be displayed— Only a small set of information is of use to user

at any point of time— Selecting some option can impact subsequent

options — New information can be added frequently


Introduction

How can we build such a GUI?— Divide the GUI in two parts, frontend and backend— Frontend is the place

– Which will just display the information to user as passed by the backend

– Relies solely on the information supplied by the backend dynamically

– Does not store any information statically– Pass on the user inputs to backend to update the next set of

information to be displayed to user

— Backend is the place which –– Controls the information to be displayed to user– Understands the user selected options– Where new functionality is added

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How does it work

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Start

Fetch Relevant Info from backend

User Selection

Impacts subsequent option

More inputs

needed

Process Data

No

No

Yes

Yes


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Advantages

Flexible – Backend can change the data if needed Scalable – New functionality supported by backend

will be supported seamlessly on GUI side No or very minimal supported needed on

GUI(frontend) side. Only relevant information is available to user at all

the time GUI and backend can never be out of sync

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Case study

A GUI developed to configure and connect VIPs to enable them to be used with the DUT

Large number of VIPs are available to user

New VIPs are added frequently

To use these VIPs user needs to — Configure the VIP of interest based on the DUT— Connect the VIP with the DUT through the available pins

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Configuring the VIP

VIPs are standard protocol to test certain aspect of the DUT

These are generic in nature and can be used with any DUT

User need to set a large number of options(can be in 100s) to use them

Without a GUI user need to know the options names and their possible values

User also need to know the functionality of each such option

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Connecting the VIP and DUT

VIPs provides a set of pins through which user needs to connect the DUT

Large number of pins(mostly more than 50)

To connect the VIP and DUT, user need to know the names of these pins, direction, and size

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Complexity

Large number of VIPs

The option set is completely different for different VIPs

Selecting certain options can impact subsequent options

New VIPs are added frequently, so the solution should be scalable

Without a GUI, the task is tedious and error prone

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User Expectations from GUI

Provide the list of all supported VIPs Assist in configuring the VIP Show all configuration options in a user

understandable format Provide the functionality of each option Provide the possible values any option can take Show the available pins in the VIP Assist in connecting the VIP with the DUT Perform error checking on the data provided by

user

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User expectations(contd…)

Generate the configuration and connection file, which can be directly used.

GUI should support the newly developed VIPs Support multiple VIPs with a single DUT

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POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

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Possible solutions

Create a separate GUI for each VIP— Advantages

– User sees only the relevant set of information at all the times

– Easy to build— Disadvantages

– So many GUIs to be developed and maintained– Not scalable– Any change on any existing VIP by triggers the need for

change in the GUI as well– Error checking of user input is difficult

— Not the right solution because of development and maintenance effort

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Possible solutions

Create a single static GUI with all information for all VIPs— Advantage

– Single GUI to develop and maintain— Disadvantages

– User sees a lot of options which are of no interest to him– Any change on any existing VIP by triggers the need for

change in the GUI as well– Not scalable– Error checking of user input is difficult

— Undesirable solution because the GUI is not user friendly and displays a lot of irrelevant information

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Possible solutions

Build a dynamic GUI where GUI side does not store any information statically, and there is a backend which controls the GUI at runtime

— Advantages– GUI is not storing any information statically so is very thin– User sees only the relevant set of information at all the

times– Backend is free to change any of the information for any VIP– Scalable. New VIPs can be supported seamlessly– Very low or no maintenance effort– Error checking of user data is very easy

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Possible solutions(dynamic GUI…)

— Disadvantages– Backend needs to manage the data for each VIP(one time

effort)– Interfaces needs to be defined for communication between

frontend and backend(again one time effort)

The choice is simple between all above cases. Build a dynamic GUI, which can be controlled by backend at runtime

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IMPLEMENTATION

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Implementation

Define a set of interfaces, through which frontend will communicate with backend

Define a syntax in which the data will be passed between backend and frontend

Backend has all the knowledge of -— All supported VIPs— Options required to be set for any VIP along with their

possible values— The functionality of each option— Pin connection details

GUI starts with no statically stored information GUI fetches every information dynamically as and

when needed

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Implementation

First step is to fetch the list of supported VIPs

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Implementation

The initial view will just have the list of VIPs, from where user can make a selection

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Implementation

Once user has selected the VIP, Configuration pane is available to user

Backend can divide the options in different categories, and GUI will show them in different tabs accordingly

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Implementation

This is the core of this algorithm The options tabs is a list of list, through which

frontend will know the different tabs to be created. To fetch the options details for each tab, a syntax

was defined using associative arrays and lists. Backend will provide information about— Option name in user understandable form— Type of option, i.e. is it a combo box, entry box etc— What possible values any option can take— Tooltip, to assist in understanding the functionality— Suffix details(if any)

GUI stores this information in an associative array in the same format as received by the backend for each tab

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Implementation

Once user fills up all the values or asks GUI to validate the information for correctness, the information is supplied exactly in the same format to backend making it easier to process the information

Once user asks to generate verilog files, the information for each tab will be passed to backend through a call for each tab

Backend would maintain the information for all the VIPs statically in associative array, where name of VIP will be the key.

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Implementation

Tooltip will assist user in understanding the functionality and possible values of any options

User can perform validation on the values specified

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Implementation

Once the options are set, user is ready to connect the VIP with his DUT

Default connections between DUT and VIP will be done

Direction and bus size is also available to user

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Implementation

User can edit the pin connections on the DUT side based on his design

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Implementation

Once user confirms the connection, verilog files can be generated through GUI

These verilog files can directly be used with the next set of tools to compile VIP and DUT together

If user wants to connect multiple VIPs to the single DUT, then can add following the same steps. Connection needs to be done in the end only

A syntax was defined using which the information will be exchanged between backend and frontend

In this case, the backend was also using Tcl, though backend can also be done in C if needed

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Agenda



Conclusion

Dynamic GUIs controllable by backend can be handy in cases where –— We have a lot of information to be displayed, which can

be divided in different groups and each group is unrelated to the other

— User is interested in only one such group at a time— New information can be added frequently— We do not want to have a dedicated GUI team — GUI does not need to store/understand the information

statically

With the GUI we discussed, the task which would have taken a couple of days to perform can be done in less than 30 minutes

Makes user aware of all the VIPs supported by the tool

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Conclusion

Provides with all the options needed to be set for using any VIP. It also helps in— Understanding the functionality of any option, otherwise

user may have to refer user manual again and again— Knowing possible set of values any option can take— Performing error checking which would have been very

difficult otherwise— Logically categorizing the options making it easier for

user to set them

Helps user in connecting the VIP with DUT by providing the default connection as expected by the VIP

Helps in connecting multiple VIPs to the same DUT Ensures that the generated files have all the valid

data saving a lot of time in debugging the issues otherwise.

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Presented by Brian Griffin On behalf of Manu Goel Mohit Goel Nov 12 th, 2014 Building a dynamic GUI, configurable at runtime by backend tool