ModelSim SE User's Manual - Electrical and Computer Engineering

UM-440 18 - Standard Delay Format (SDF) Timing Annotation
Specifying SDF files for simulation
Instance specification
ModelSim SE User’s Manual
ModelSim supports SDF versions 1.0 through 3.0. The simulator’s built-in SDF annotator
automatically adjusts to the version of the file. Use the following vsim (CR-373) commandline
options to specify the SDF files, the desired timing values, and their associated design
instances:
-sdfmin [=]
-sdftyp [=]
-sdfmax [=]
Any number of SDF files can be applied to any instance in the design by specifying one of
the above options for each file. Use -sdfmin to select minimum, -sdftyp to select typical,
and -sdfmax to select maximum timing values from the SDF file.
The instance paths in the SDF file are relative to the instance to which the SDF is applied.
Usually, this instance is an ASIC or FPGA model instantiated under a testbench. For
example, to annotate maximum timing values from the SDF file myasic.sdf to an instance
u1 under a top-level named testbench, invoke the simulator as follows:
vsim -sdfmax /testbench/u1=myasic.sdf testbench
If the instance name is omitted then the SDF file is applied to the top-level. This is usually
incorrect because in most cases the model is instantiated under a testbench or within a
larger system level simulation. In fact, the design can have several models, each having its
own SDF file. In this case, specify an SDF file for each instance. For example,
vsim -sdfmax /system/u1=asic1.sdf -sdfmax /system/u2=asic2.sdf system