Verilator

You can just use standard verilog, for example initial $readmemh(filename, mem_array, 0, max_index);

Thanks, I'll definitely capture my binary instructions that way.

Here's a more specific description of my issue:

I'm trying to figure out how to load a program written in C++ onto a processor I've designed. The processor uses the MIPS I ISA and I wrote it using Verilator. This being said I have a C++ file that instantiates my processor module as an object.

The C++ file contains 2 arrays, one that represents instruction memory and another that represents data memory. I want to fill the instruction memory array with the instructions in my compiled binary file (made from a simple test program written in C++). To do this I require some knowledge of the MIPS ABI. I have the generic System V ABI and the processor specific MIPS32 ABI documents and I am attempting to determine where exactly in my binary file my program resides.

I need help figuring out exactly what instructions in my binary file I need and how I should use them. Can anyone supply me with some incite as to how I go about sorting through the binary I generated? I know I need the instructions that represent my sample program but what else do I need? The whole set of instructions or just a subset?

This isn't a Verilator question exactly so I don't expect it to be answered but if you have the time to, I'd greatly appreciate any help/direction I can get.

You need an "ELF loader", that takes all the "loader sections" and puts them into your array, or puts them into a hex file format that then gets to your array. Do a little googling and if you can't find anything you'll need to read up on the ELF format and sections, and use "libelf" or similar to pull out what you need.

Thanks for the help, I ended up writing a quick C++ program that would take the output of readelf, extract the .text and .data segments and then convert each instruction to a decimal number to be loaded into my instruction array. 2 step process but it works okay.

Glad I could help. If you want to avoid two steps you can hide the first by using popen() instead of fopen() and thus your C program can call readelf itself.