Patent ID: 7158924

Claim:
A method for tracking instances of instrumentation events within a hardware description language (HDL) model using a run time executive (RTX) simulation control program that controls testcase execution during simulation testing of said HDL model, wherein said simulation testing includes tracking instrumentation events using a specified HDL-based event naming convention, said method comprising: calling a set name application program interface (API) entry point that associates a name of said RTX simulation control program with RTX instrumentation events detected by non-HDL program instructions during testcase execution of said HDL model; generating a design entity list within said HDL model, wherein said design entity list identifies all design entities instantiated within said HDL model; dynamically loading at least one instrumentation code module into said RTX simulation control program, wherein said at least one instrumentation code module comprises non-HDL instructions for generating and processing non-HDL program instrumentation events that are associated with at least one instrumentation code module with at least one of said identified design entities, said non-HDL program instructions within said instrumentation code module further including instructions for calling a create event API entry point; and calling a create event API entry point that generates an instrumentation event object corresponding to one of said RTX instrumentation events, said create event API entry point including an event identifier that specifies a name for the generated instrumentation event object using said specified HDL-based event naming convention.