This is an update to the Icarus Verilog 0.9 release series. If you are new to v0.9 in general, then you may want to refer back to these older release notes since this page only covers the differences between v0.9.3 and v0.9.4.
Major New Features[]
Within the v0.9 series we try to keep the major changes to a minimum, but some new features are allowed in if we feel that they do not risk the stability of the branch or of Verilog programs that use this compiler.
Language Coverage[]
- Add support for using the &&, || and ! operators with real constant values.
- Add support for passing -0.0 from the compiler to the run time.
- Add support for parsing pull devices that have two strengths specified.
- Allow multiple attribute instances.
Language Extensions[]
- <none>
General Bug Fixes[]
- Fix a bug when using the === and !== operators with signed values.
- Skip NULL system task/function arguments when performing @* processing.
- Fix some bugs related to tasks with integer/real arguments.
- Fix a bug in the normalization of part selects.
- Fix some bugs in the compiler shift code.
- A port driven by a constant should not be coerced to inout.
- Fix the display of strings with the MSB set or with embedded NULLs.
- When padding a string keep the string property if the padding is a multiple of eight.
- Add a check for incorrectly creating a vector of reals vs an array of reals.
- Some minor SDF support improvements, but development has much better SDF support.
- Add a warning that Icarus does not support the Cadence style of ifnone.
- Correctly calculate the width of a signed constant.
- Update the FST dumper files to the latest from GTKWave.
- Improve some of the error/warning messages.
- Numerous other bug fixes (the complete details can be found in the commit logs for the v0_9-branch of iverilog on github).
Things That Still Don't Work[]
This isn't necessarily a complete list of missing features, but this should at least list the missing features that you are likely to encounter.
Missing Language Features[]
- PLA modeling system tasks.
- Stochastic analysis system tasks.
- Multi-dimensional arrays.
- Timing checks (they are currently ignored).
- The various pulse limits/controls.
- specparam with a range, outside a specify block, back-annotation, or referencing another specparam.
- Constant user functions.
- Net delays.
- trireg nets (capacitive networks).
- Inertial delays from the PLI
Bugs fixed/enhancements in development that will not be added to V0.9[]
- The way VVP handles nets has been reworked. This allows force, etc. to work correctly.
- Reworked the initial value propagation and make the value more standard.
- A uwire with multiple drivers will now be reported as an error during code generation.
- Added better support for SDF back annotation and delay selection.
- Added delay support to tranif gates and other improvements.
- Added support for two variable delays where appropriate.
- Added support for a UDP with a variable delay.
- Added support for overriding a parameter from the command line/command file.
- Better/more efficient support of signed or undefined variable selects.
- Added non-blocking assignment to a real array.
- Add full support for SystemVerilog $fatal, $error, $warning and $info.
- Add basic support for SystemVerilog two value variables.
- Added SystemVerilog timeunit and timeprecision.
- Added all the Verilog-AMS and SystemVerilog keywords when appropriate.
- A number of VHDL target fixes.
- Added support for `celldefine and vpiCellInstance.
- Added support for vpiUserSystf iteration, vpi_get_systf_info(), etc.
- Reworked how parameter expressions are processed.
- Rework how the expression width/type is calculated.
- Add support for reading VHDL files (ongoing).
- Add target for generating 1364-1995 compatible code (ongoing).
- Add __FILE__ and __LINE__ macros (with limitations).
- Add a compilation option that instruments the vvp code to allow run time statement tracing.
- Some general speedup improvements.
- Various compilation and warning fixes/updates.
- A number of other bug fixes.
Bugs Still Pending[]
There are known bugs that are still pending. Some may be fixed in later releases of 0.9, but most will have to wait for the next major release. See the bug tracker for the complete list.
Where to Get Icarus Verilog 0.9.4[]
The source tar file and precompiled packages for select systems are available from the main ftp site: <ftp://ftp.icarus.com/pub/eda/verilog/v0.9/>. If you don't find what you are looking for there please look on the standard software distribution site(s) for your operating system if such a thing exists. A package for Microsoft Windows can be found here: <http://bleyer.org/icarus>.