Cocotb Setup
Python runs SystemVerilog
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Throughout your time in 6.205, testbenches and simulations will be your dear friend, letting you see what your hardware designs will accomplish without waiting for minutes before loading a design onto an FPGA1
Installation
We'd strongly recommend you install any Python libraries (including cocotb) using a virtual environment. You can create one with the command:
python3 -m venv ~/6205_python
Where "6205_python" is the name of the Python virtual environment. You can use this Python environment and avoid messing up your system python with the installations.
You can activate the environment with the command source ~/6205_python/bin/activate. You'll see (6205_python) precede lines in your shell indicating the environment is active. Do this whenever you start a terminal and begin working on your 6.205 work!
While a virtual environment is running, you can deactivate it and return to your typical Python environment with the shell command deactivate.
Cocotb is available through the pip package manager, so installing it is very simple! Once you have a virtual envrionment running, install cocotb with the command:
pip3 install cocotb
And cocotb will be installed! Keep in mind that in order to use it, you'll need to also have some simulator available in your environment--in our case, that's iVerilog, so make sure you have it installed. Finally, go on to the next page to install software to view the waveform results from our simulations!
Usage
In week 01, the Testing exercise gives a crash course in using cocotb, and will likely keep being a helpful reference for what you can accomplish in your testbenches.
Beyond this, the documentation for cocotb is a very helpful tool! Keep it in your back pocket for great references on how to go about writing Python testbenches.