wait fork allows the main process to wait until all forked processes are over. This is useful in cases where the main process has to spawn multiple threads, and perform some function before waiting for all threads to finish.
Example
We'll use the same example seen in the previous article where 3 threads are kicked off in parallel and the main process waits for one of them to finish. After the main thread resumes, let's wait until all forked processes are done.
module tb_top;
initial begin
// Fork off 3 sub-threads in parallel and the currently executing main thread
// will finish when any of the 3 sub-threads have finished.
fork
// Thread1 : Will finish first at time 40ns
#40 $display ("[%0t ns] Show #40 $display statement", $time);
// Thread2 : Will finish at time 70ns
begin
#20 $display ("[%0t ns] Show #20 $display statement", $time);
#50 $display ("[%0t ns] Show #50 $display statement", $time);
end
// Thread3 : Will finish at time 60ns
#60 $display ("[%0t ns] TIMEOUT", $time);
join_any
// Display as soon as the fork is done
$display ("[%0t ns] Fork join is done, wait fork to end", $time);
// Wait until all forked processes are over and display
wait fork;
$display ("[%0t ns] Fork join is over", $time);
end
endmodule
Simulation Log
ncsim> run [20 ns] Show #20 $display statement [40 ns] Show #40 $display statement [40 ns] Fork join is done, wait fork to end [60 ns] TIMEOUT [70 ns] Show #50 $display statement [70 ns] Fork join is over ncsim: *W,RNQUIE: Simulation is complete.
Does wait fork wait until all processes are over ?
To see how it behaves in this case, let's fork two more processes and wait for the fork to finish.
module tb_top;
initial begin
// Fork off 3 sub-threads in parallel and the currently executing main thread
// will finish when any of the 3 sub-threads have finished.
fork
// Thread1 : Will finish first at time 40ns
#40 $display ("[%0t ns] Show #40 $display statement", $time);
// Thread2 : Will finish at time 70ns
begin
#20 $display ("[%0t ns] Show #20 $display statement", $time);
#50 $display ("[%0t ns] Show #50 $display statement", $time);
end
// Thread3 : Will finish at time 60ns
#60 $display ("[%0t ns] TIMEOUT", $time);
join_any
// Display as soon as the fork is done
$display ("[%0t ns] Fork join is done, wait fork to end", $time);
// Fork two more processes
fork
#10 $display ("[%0t ns] Wait for 10", $time);
#20 $display ("[%0t ns] Wait for 20", $time);
join_any
// Wait until ALL forked processes are over
wait fork;
$display ("[%0t ns] Fork join is over", $time);
end
endmodule
Simulation Log
ncsim> run [20 ns] Show #20 $display statement [40 ns] Show #40 $display statement [40 ns] Fork join is done, wait fork to end [50 ns] Wait for 10 [60 ns] TIMEOUT [60 ns] Wait for 20 [70 ns] Show #50 $display statement [70 ns] Fork join is over ncsim: *W,RNQUIE: Simulation is complete.
