TRACE Files

This section describes the TRACE input and output files.

Input Files

Input files to TRACE are

• NCD file - a mapped design. The type of timing information you receive depends on whether the design is unplaced, placed only, or placed and routed.
  
  
• PCF file - an optional user-modifiable ASCII Physical Constraints File produced by MAP. The PCF file contains timing constraints used in the TRACE timing analysis.
  
  

NOTE

The Viewlogic® CAE tools create a file with a .pcf extension when generating a plot of a Viewlogic schematic. This PCF file is not related to a Xilinx PCF file. Since TRACE automatically reads a PCF file with the same root name as your design file, make sure your directory does not contain a Viewlogic PCF file with the same root name as your NCD file.

Output Files

Output from TRACE is a timing report (TWR) file. There are three different types of timing reports: summary report, error report, and verbose report. The type of report produced is determined by the TRACE command line options you enter, as shown in the following table.

Table 12_1 TRACE Options and Reports