AMD SimNow Simulator 4.4.4 - Manual (Page 182)

AMD Confidential
User Manual September 12
h
, 2008
170 Chapter 15: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Device grouping tree node relationships: Because of device grouping, created devices
in a BSD are nodes in a tree, with parents and children, siblings, and end/root tree node
relationships.
Device connection relationships: Because of device connections, a sibling device can be
connected to another sibling device at a connection port of each device.
Machine Device Group: Just a device group, but it is special since it is the root node of
a machine tree (it has no parent, it can't be deleted, it has no ports, and it has no sibling
devices); each machine in a BSD has a single machine created device group.
Archive Data or Device State: A known device group has archive data for its child
devices, which specifies the default and initial state for when a known device group is
instantiated as a created device. A known device library also has default and initial state
for when it is instantiated as a created device. When a BSD is saved, each device's current
state (archive data) (which may be different than the original known device's archive
data) is saved to the “*.bsd” file.
15.1.2 Concept Diagrams
A device group is a device with its own identity (name, description, icon, help file, etc).
But it is also like a BSD; in fact, every BSD has a single created device group called the
Machine device. Tthe default user‟s view into SimNow is from the context of looking
inside the Machine device. This encapsulation of devices inside device group‟s results in
a hierarchy tree, with a Machine device group as the root node. In this way, a device
group tree is like a folder/directory tree (folder is to device group as file is to device
library), as demonstrated in Figure 3-6.
Figure 3-6: Device group: BSD with one machine group and three child devices
Any device can also connect to its sibling devices (Figure 3-6 does not depict any port
connections). Figure 3-7 depicts the same example device tree, but with a different
conceptual view - devices are inside groups; arrows represent possible port connections
between sibling devices: